Rural Health Network of South Central New York, Inc.

Lack of access to services in remote areas of New York State is a problem facing many upstate, rural communities.

The Rural Health Network of South Central New York, Inc., a private, nonprofit organization that serves rural Broome, Delaware, and Tioga Counties, provided administrative oversight and other management services to multiple agencies to preserve and expand emergency and health services in the rural Southern Tier region with key partners Tioga County Neighbors Helping Neighbors (TCNHN) and the Susquehanna Regional Emergency Medical Services (SREMS).

This project allowed the Rural Health Network to provide administrative and management capacity that does not currently exist for either TCNHN or SREMS. For the TCNHN volunteer organizations, a shared full-time project coordinator provided resource development, data collection and evaluation, communications services, and volunteer recruitment, training, and retention support. For SREMS, the Rural Health Network provided four first-responder trained AmeriCorps members to support four volunteer emergency medical services (EMS) service organizations, and assisted with volunteer recruitment, communications, and fundraising.

TCNHN and SREMS both expend significant effort and resources on recruiting, organizing, deploying, and reimbursing volunteers. The centralization of administrative functions supported eight volunteer and nonprofit organizations in a more efficient and cost-effective way. This project leveraged modest Federal, State, and local resources to more efficiently and effectively provide services in a rural part of the State, which could become a model for other rural volunteer EMS services throughout New York State.