Charleston Community Nurse and Community Pop-Ups

Charleston Community Nurse and Community Pop-Ups is an innovative health and wellness delivery model implemented as community-based pop-up events across the Charleston area to address social and economic healthcare barriers. The program will make health care more accessible and approachable by directly providing preventative services, improving healthcare equity, and offering resources to address social determinants of health, all within communities with the greatest need. This is done through partnerships with trusted community leaders and agencies who are already providing services including health assessments, vaccinations, mental health resources, employment opportunities, access to fresh produce, and assistance signing up for public assistance programs, to name a few. The program is designed and led by an interprofessional team of nurses, informal and formal community leaders and follows the tenets of whole-person care, addressing the community’s physical, social, behavioral, safety, and environmental needs. The program also utilizes positive deviance, “an asset-based, problem-solving, and community-driven approach that enables the community to” define problems and design solutions as a community (Positive Deviance Collaborative, n.d., para. 1). The Charleston Community Nurse works alongside communities in this process.