Legal Aid Society

In a state as large as New York, a steady stream of smart, innovative work is coming from NYHealth grantees and non-grantees alike that is relevant to NYHealth’s priority areas of Building Healthy Communities and Empowering Health Care Consumers and its focus area on Veterans’ Health. These organizations should be elevating their work and informing key stakeholders at regional, statewide, and national conferences, meetings, and other convenings. Yet, because of a lack of resources, they are often unable to do so. To address this issue, NYHealth is awarding grants through its Sponsoring Conference Participation in Support of Healthy Communities, Consumer Empowerment, and Veterans’ Health Request for Proposals (RFP). Through this RFP, NYHealth sponsored low-resource organizations to attend and present at local, State, and national conferences related to these areas. In 2018, NYHealth awarded Legal Aid Society a grant to participate in this initiative as part of its efforts to empower health care consumers.

Under this grant, two staff members attended the National Health Law Program Annual Health Advocates Conference. The conference offered sessions directly relevant to Legal Aid Society’s work, including assisting clients in navigating managed care, concerns in immigrant health care, threats to long-term care, and delivery system reform. The 2018 conference was tailored to the unique role attorneys can play in empowering health care consumers. By attending the conference, the staff members were able to compare strategies and best practices with other legal providers working to empower low-income, vulnerable communities and clients across New York State.

View a complete list of conference participation grantees.