Who are We?

ARCH, Access to Resources for Community Health, is a partnership among MGH Treadwell Library, MGH Community Health Associates, Greater Boston Center for Healthy Communities (a program of The Medical Foundation www.tmfnet.org), and the City of Chelsea Health Department.

Our goal is to deliver a high- quality community-based health information service to both the residents and professionals of Charlestown, Chelsea, Everett, and Revere.

What do we offer?

Information and resource center

• Equipped with computers and Internet access for patient use. Appointments are recommended to ensure computers are available.
• Staffed by a Certified Health Education Specialist.
• Includes books, newsletters, pamphlets, and videos.
• Contains some non- English language resources.

Web site
www.arch-mgh.org is a customized web site with pre- selected Internet resources for health professionals and patients.

Training
In order to achieve the goal of increasing access to high- quality health information on the Internet, we provide free, hands- on training to MGH clinicians, nurses working in the communities, as well as outreach workers and patients. Training sessions can be offered at a community setting facilitated with computers and Internet access. The training will focus on one or more of the following areas depending on our trainees' needs:

• Internet basics
• Effective use of the ARCH web site
• How to evaluate online health information
• How to teach others to use the ARCH web site
• CEUs for registered nurses(Contact Project Coordinator for details)

Access to additional resources
ARCH provides access to a limited number of online resources in the MGH Treadwell Library.

ARCH also provides access to the Greater Boston Center for Healthy Communities Resource Library. ARCH links to the Resource Library online catalog which lists more than 18,000 health education resources.