The purpose of New Routes to Community Health is to improve the health of new immigrants and refugees using locally-focused media to do so. Anchored in local partnerships made up of immigrant organizations, media production centers, and established community institutions to that end. In the next 3 years, New Routes grantees will make radio shows, produce videos, publish newsletters, and more, creating content that will give voice to immigrants, enabling them to exchange valuable information with one another and with their receiving communities.

The New Routes National Program Office (NPO) will provide the help each local program needs to succeed, including national training conferences, grantee site visits and on-going communication via phone, e-mail and the New Routes Web site. The NPO will also act as a hub for information exchange, connecting New Routes grantees to others who are doing similar work.

Colleagues from MasComm Associates and the Benton Foundation make up the NPO. New Routes is funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) through its Vulnerable Populations portfolio. RWJF supports promising new ideas that address health and health care problems that intersect with social factors, like poverty, race, education, and housing. Locally focused media—particularly as informed and used by new immigrants—has emerged at the forefront of these promising practices.

Over the last ten years, RWJF has worked in partnership with the Benton Foundation to support collaborations between public broadcasters and community institutions. This initiative, Sound Partners for Community Health, effectively used those collaborations to give voice to the most vulnerable among us and improve their quality of life.

With the expertise of the Benton Foundation, long recognized for its knowledge of solving social problems with the aid of communication tools, RWJF will further explore the potential of local media to improve the health and well-being of new immigrants living in the U.S.

New Routes to Community Health National Program Office Staff
Benton Program Liaison Karen Menichelli
Program Director Beth Mastin
Deputy Director Brenda González
Media and Technology Co-Directors Gale Petersen & Catherine Stifter
Web Developer Jeremy Isett

Contact us by e-mail
Web site: newroutes.org

4510 Regent Street
Madison, WI 53705
Phone: 608-236-0674 10am-5pm EST Monday-Friday
Fax: 866-380-4060