CareNet Success Stories
Toledo Mother Receives CHW's Help Getting Back On Track
Besides raising three children and working as a nursing assistant, Kayla Evans is busy launching a scented candle and body scrub business. Blending scents and purchasing supplies are among her duties these days.
That is a far cry from early 2024, soon after Kayla’s younger son, Jeremiah, was born.
Kayla had been struggling with a long list of difficulties, with postpartum depression being chief among them.
Help Care For Our Neighbors
Your donation to CareNet helps ensure more low-income people get access to the coordinated healthcare services they need.
Yet working with CareNet Community Health Worker Maria Hunter helped Kayla get her life back on track. Maria assisted Kayla with connecting to needed medical and community resources, including diapers, food, and transportation.
Kayla, who receives counseling for her postpartum depression, said Maria also helped her determine priorities and secure daycare so she could work.
“She never once told me ‘We’ve tried everything. We’ve exhausted every option,’ “ recalled Kayla, who previously had received assistance from Maria with her daughter, Jai’-Lynn. “She was phenomenal.”
In October 2023, the then pregnant Kayla suffered an emotional and financial blow when her car caught on fire while she was driving it. Kayla, her daughter, and her three nieces escaped, but she didn’t have a car for months.
Yet the fire was the impetus for J3 Creations LLC, the candle and scrub business that her mother helped Kayla fund and Maria encouraged her to start. Having additional support from Maria through tough times was invaluable, Kayla said.
“Giving up is not an option no matter how hard things get,” Kayla said.
Assistance From CHW Helps Toledoan With Treatment & Recovery
At first, Ricardo Coker needed assistance from CareNet Community Health Worker Maria Hunter while facing eviction and homelessness.
But as the Toledoan became more comfortable with Maria, he shared his determination to battle a drug addiction that had consumed him for years.
Ricardo enrolled himself into a treatment program and started opening up to Maria after he began to trust her. Maria’s support and encouragement helped him with treatment and recovery, he said.
“It was her inspiration,” Ricardo said. “She would always be there. I would call her, and she would get back to me.”
Maria and other CareNet community health workers (CHWs) work one-on-one with low-income clients like Ricardo to connect them to needed medical and social services. CHWs work as a team with clients to determine their greatest needs and address them one by one
For Ricardo, the threat of homelessness was at the top of his list in 2023. Maria assisted Ricardo into early 2024 with rent, housing, food, budgeting, and other needs, as well as supporting him during treatment.
Ricardo said he had already decided to get treatment because he was “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
“While using drugs, I didn’t have anyone to converse with but me,” added Ricardo, who also is diabetic and has other health problems. “I was more interested in getting high than anything else.”
Ricardo said of being in recovery: “My life has flourished.”
Thoughts From Former Members & Clients
Without CareNet, I may never have had surgery to remove the ovarian tumor that had grown rapidly in size and found out it was actually precancerous. There’s no telling what would have happened to me if it wasn’t for CareNet.
I wasn’t ready for my third son at all. Any time I called her about something I needed or to ask her anything, she was there, even on the weekend.
I didn’t know these services existed. The help really goes deep. It’s wonderful.