Thank you for your interest in becoming a 2026 Health Care Steward and helping us to lift up real experiences, build local leadership, and connect reproductive freedom to health justice in West Virginia.
About Echoes of Resilience: Mountain Voices on Health & Justice and the Health Care Steward cohort:
Echoes of Resilience is a healthcare storytelling project that centers voices that are too often overlooked. Behind every policy debate are real people whose experiences show why reproductive freedom and health justice are deeply connected. This project aims to honor those stories and help build a more compassionate, healthy West Virginia.
Led by West Virginians for Affordable Health Care (WVAHC), this statewide initiative uses storytelling, trusted messengers, and cultural traditions to build understanding and support for reproductive health equity across West Virginia.
Health Care Stewards are at the heart of this work.
Five Stewards, based in key regions of the state, will serve as trusted messengers—collecting and sharing first-person stories about reproductive health, justice, and Medicaid’s role in community well-being. These conversations will take place between February and June 2026, in everyday spaces—porches, salons, churches, corner stores—reflecting the real lives, challenges, and resilience of West Virginians navigating today’s health care system.
Each Steward will be trained on relevant policy issues and trauma-informed story collection practices and be responsible for for collecting at least 2 stories that illustrate the need for access to comprehensive reproductive health care in West Virginia.
Examples include but are not limited to:
- Family Planning, Pregnancy and Postpartum care
- Labor and delivery
- Fertility and infertility services
- Menstrual health care (irregular periods, painful periods, endometriosis, etc.)
- Pelvic exams, Pap tests and cervical cancer screenings
- STD/STI testing and treatment
- Treatment for reproductive health conditions (PCOS, fibroids, endometriosis)
- Miscarriage and Abortion care
- Menopause care and hormone management
- Sexual health counseling and education
As a Health Care Steward, you will help ensure that local voices shape public understanding and advocacy efforts, supported by partners and community leaders committed to racial, economic, and health justice. Stories gathered through this work will be amplified through media, community events, and a traveling portrait exhibit that celebrates resilience, cultural pride, and collective power. (Fall 2026)
By joining this program, applicants have the opportunity to help reclaim the narrative about West Virginia—lifting up lived experience, strengthening community leadership, and contributing to a future rooted in dignity, autonomy, and health justice for all.
Stewards can earn up to $500 for their participation throughout the project year.