12 Feb
by Derrick Vander Waal
SIOUX CENTER, IOWA – Kendra Kleinwolterink has had great respect for the important role that Promise Community Health Center plays in the community since she found out about the organization during college.
SIOUX CENTER, IOWA – Kendra Kleinwolterink has had great respect for the important role that Promise Community Health Center plays in the community since she found out about the organization during college.
She now is excited to educate the community about the services it has to offer as the new community educator at Promise.
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| Kendra Kleinwolterink has assumed the role of community educator at Promise Community Health Center in Sioux Center. In the newly created position, she will educate the community about the services Promise has to offer. |
“I really admired the mission Promise has to offer everyone,” she said. “I think it’s fantastic that Promise offers to serve everyone that walks through their doors.”
Promise’s community educator position was created to make connections with personnel in area schools, businesses and other organizations to educate them about the wide-ranging services that the health center has to offer. She also will help arrange community health education opportunities, along with various other tasks.
Kleinwolterink has discovered that many people still do not realize all that Promise offers, so she is excited to find creative ways to inform the community about Promise.
“As an entire organization, Promise has really continued to grow over the years,” she said. “I want to be a part of the awareness that will spread about our organization. As employees and services are added to Promise, I want to have a hand in expanding the knowledge of those things in the community.”
Kleinwolterink grew up in Sibley and graduated from Sibley-Ocheyedan High School in 2010. She then earned an associate’s degree in liberal arts from Minnesota West Community & Technical College in Worthington in 2012 and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Northwestern College in Orange City in 2014.
She interned for The Bridge in Orange City, January-May 2014, and as a domestic violence advocate for YWCA Northeastern New York in Schenectady, June 2014-April 2015. She then served as a community care coordinator for Seasons Center for Behavioral Health in Sioux Center, June 2015-January 2016.
“I have worked in a nonprofit setting since my senior year of college,” Kleinwolterink said. “Through those experiences, I learned about different cultures and diverse backgrounds. With that experience, I feel I am really able to better understand the message of Promise and what to tell the community about the services that we offer.”
Kleinwolterink, who lives in Orange City, said everyone at Promise has been “overwhelmingly welcoming.”
“It’s obvious that everyone works as a team within their specific departments and as a whole organization,” she said.
Promise Community Health Center, headquartered in Sioux Center, is the only Federally Qualified Health Center in the far northwest corner of Iowa. Promise provides medical, dental, prenatal and behavioral health services. To learn more, visit www.promisechc.org.