New outreach coordinator Horacio Hernandez has been working with the Hopewell Township Health Department for two months now, and has begun to meet the community.
He has visited local restaurants and community organizations and met with residents at the Covid-19 vaccine clinics.
Horacio’s grew up in Trenton, and still calls the city home. His parents come from Guatemala, and they ensured that he was fluent in Spanish.
He graduated from Trenton Central High School and The College of New Jersey, earning a bachelor of arts double major in sociology and public health.
He has a long community service background, and served in AmeriCorps before coming to Hopewell. He says he chose this path after seeing the statistics and stories early in the pandemic and felt this was his “call to action.”
His concern for the health of the community made him aspire to use his skills to play a role in addressing Covid-19, in the country and in Mercer County. His experience taught him that working from within the community would create the strong relationships that would allow him to be a part of positive change, now and in the future, work he finds very rewarding.
Horacio says that his short term goals include getting to know the community, and to connect with community- and faith-based organizations to learn about their needs and the people they serve. His next steps would be to make plans for future health programming that will address those needs.
“I hope to be interconnected with the Hopewell Township/Valley community, to understand the elements that make Hopewell the place it is, and to use that knowledge to serve all residents for a better quality of life,” he says.”
In the future, Horacio plans to continue his education to “better equip his Public Health toolkit,” and to address the long-term effects of Covid-19 and other health issues that may arise in the Valley.
Horacio says he has had a great start in Hopewell Township. He is enjoying the social connection and the obvious love the residents have for the Valley. He is especially enjoying the views!
In his spare time, Horacio enjoys music, long car rides (he has driven from NJ to New Orleans four times!), movies, video games, and art museums. He loves to try new foods. Since he can’t have his favorite animal, the sloth, as a pet, he currently has no pets at home.
If you see him coming, have his favorite iced coffee ready!
To contact Horacio Hernandez, email hhernandez@hopewelltwp.org or call 609-537-0216.
Reba Holley is communications and outreach coordinator for Hopewell Township, which provided this content.
