Community Partner Spotlight: Birgit Lemke
For the past ten years, Birgit Lemke has poured her time into ensuring all Finney County residents have access to health and social services.
Lemke, the Program Manager for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Community Health Worker Programs, found passion in accessible healthcare for Finney County after witnessing the needs of the immigrant community as an English Instructor for Garden City Community College.
“I was a trusted person. People came in with all kinds of correspondence to have me read and tell them what [it] was all about and what they needed to do,” Lemke said. “I just got a lot of insight into their lives and how hard it is to function in a society where you don’t speak the language, [and] you don’t know the system.”
Lemke is one of many Kansas leaders who partner with the ARISE project to bridge the gap between academic research and residents. Led by scientists from the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, and Wichita State University, ARISE aims to build disaster-resilience with funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Kansas Board of Regents.
As a community health worker, Lemke connects vulnerable residents with social and health services. She and other leaders also share local needs with the LiveWell Finney County Health Coalition, a Local Health Equity Action Team (LHEAT) in Finney County. Alongside Communities Organizing to Promote Equity (COPE) led by the University of Kansas Medical School, Lemke supports three LHEATs in southwest Kansas.
“The goal is to engage and educate the community on research, so those channels already existing are really valuable,” Lemke said.
By serving as a hub for spreading information throughout the community, LHEAT enables community resilience through education, advocacy and access to resources.
For example, after a bitter cold snap in Jan. 2024, Lemke joined with LHEAT and others to support the community by purchasing weather radios, items for the unhoused, a freezer to improve food access for Finney County families and spreading awareness about shelters.
Oftentimes, Lemke visits community members' homes to better gauge their needs. Once, when Lemke was conducting a home visit to advertise a free cancer screening, she visited a mother of three boys with limited access to healthcare. Because of the cancer screening, the mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and survived.
“I just know that she would have never gone to a screening and the reason why she survived [was] from that,” Lemke said. “Not only was the screening free, then we advocated for her too to have free chemo.”
Beyond this, Lemke and others also walked the mother through applying for charity care and later a pro bono surgery for reconstruction.
“All that was all just [the] community working together, helping her,” Lemke said.
Additionally, Lemke helps other leaders to have a seat at the table and ensures the communities they advocate for are connected. This entails making sure leaders and residents are aware of shelters, food pantry opening times, transportation and more. Together with LHEAT members, she has even successfully petitioned grocery stores to carry halal meat for Muslim residents.
Together with her network of community advocates, Lemke plans to continue to serve Finney County to close the gap of need.
By Valeria Solis