For the inaugural year of the Janice Nittoli Practitioner Fellowship, the Urban Institute selected Manmeet Kaur, executive director and founder of the Harlem-based community health organization City Health Works. City Health Works creates healthier, stronger neighborhoods while reducing health disparities and health care spending through health coaching and care coordination. Working at the intersection of policy and practice, City Health Works’ vision is to implement a high-quality community health system at scale. During Kaur’s fellowship, Urban collaborated with Kaur and her team to hone practical insights and data toward policy efforts to improve health care and address social determinants of health.
Meet Manmeet Kaur
Manmeet Kaur founded City Health Works in 2013 to create a business case for integrating local health coaches into the US health care system. City Health Works has become a national example of how to deploy a neighborhood-based care model that improves health, reduces avoidable health care spending, and creates rewarding jobs. It has been featured in many major media outlets, including Politico, PBS Newshour, the Economist, and NPR. Kaur was previously an adviser to the One Million Community Health Workers campaign and worked on community health and workforce initiatives in South Africa, India, and New York City. In her time abroad, Kaur saw the potential for applying best practices from low-cost health systems from across the globe to the US. Kaur formerly was a Draper Richard Kaplan social entrepreneur, a GLG Social Impact fellow, and a Third Millennium Human Rights fellow. She serves on the board of the civil rights organization Sikh Coalition and on the advisory board to the Sikh Family Center. Kaur earned a BA from Barnard College and an MBA from Columbia University.
City Health Works
City Health Works bridges the gap between the doctor's office and the everyday lives of patients diagnosed with life-threatening chronic illnesses.
Most activities required to manage the day-to-day realities of chronic illnesses take place in the home. For most clinicians, the home is a black box. Through health coaches and coordinators, City Health Works extends the reach of overburdened clinics by being clinicians’ eyes and ears and providing extra support to those who need it most. Their approach leads to better health outcomes, better-quality care, and lower costs for the health care system.
Products
- How City Health Works Fills a Gap in Chronic Care (video)
- Examining Community Health Worker Models in Managing Chronic Conditions (event + webcast)
- Urban Institute Selects City Health Works Executive Director Manmeet Kaur for New Janice Nittoli Fellowship (press release)
- Q&A with Public Health Innovator Manmeet Kaur, Recipient of the Janice Nittoli Fellowship (blog post)
- Flipping the Research Fellowship: Direct Engagement Improves Practices and Builds Knowledge (blog post)
- To Face an Epidemic of Preventable Chronic Illness, We Need More Than Doctors (blog post)
- Short video highlighting the clients and coaches City Health Works supports
- What Do Patients with Diabetes Think of Health Coaching? (brief)
- Improving Chronic Illness Management in Harlem: Leveraging Community Health Coaches to Address the Challenge of Medication Management (brief)
- Untangling Medication Management for Low-Income Patients in Harlem (blog post)