When people don’t know how to find food, pay for their utilities or even install a car seat, Johnny Beiswanger can help.
He’s one of five community weavers, who are health workers at Eskenazi Health. Each person in the role works in a neighborhood where there’s an Eskenazi clinic and connects people to care, whether that’s health care or other resources. Their services are free for neighbors.
Beiswanger, who is 27, works out of the Eskenazi Health Center at Grassy Creek and serves residents of the Far Eastside. He passes out fliers and meets people at libraries, community centers and the Grassy Creek clinic.
Before starting this role, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in health care administration and worked in geriatrics and adult day care.
During outreach on a Monday in February at Community Alliance of the Far Eastside, or CAFE, he packed bags of food alongside volunteers, preparing for the community center’s afternoon drive-up food pantry.
When people pull up and roll down their window, he gives his “spiel” — how he can help with scheduling doctor’s appointments, locating food pantries on the Community Compass app, and finding transportation so they can access the resources he shares.
Each community weaver spends time in the community every week to meet people, just like Beiswanger does at CAFE. Instead of asking people to come to them, they go out to find people and share resources they might not know they can use.
“Some of the things that people go through, they don’t know what to do, and they don’t know how to navigate the process, and they don’t know who they need to contact,” Beiswanger said. Sometimes, he said, people at the food pantry think they have to pay.
After he tells people about how to find a food pantry or where to call and schedule a doctor’s appointment, he’ll reach out about a week later. He’ll ask why they didn’t get a chance to make the call and try to help them solve any underlying issues. If they’re nervous about going to a food pantry for the first time, he’ll tell them to show up when he’ll be there.
“Trust is something that’s really big, too, especially with the population that I work with and just with what’s going on now around the United States,” Beiswanger said. He serves a lot of Haitian and Latino people on the Far Eastside.
“I get a lot of patients who don’t want to leave their homes to get those resources. So if they can just trust me, and I can let them know, ‘I’m here for you. I’m here for whatever you need,’” he said.
One person he’s built trust with is Remechia Brownlee. Brownlee, 61, met Beiswanger for the first time when she went to a food pantry at the Success Center at East. He helped her get connected to health care, find food and get into grief counseling after her husband died.
“He’s been a real godsend to me,” she said. “I’m not grieving anymore, and I’m happy. And I’m thankful to God that he put Johnny in my path.”
Community weavers also work on larger-scale Eskenazi projects that fill needs for the people in their neighborhoods. At the Grassy Creek clinic, Beiswanger uses the Child Passenger Safety Technician certification he got from Indiana University’s automotive safety program to teach parents how to correctly install and use a car seat.
It’s connected to the Far Eastside’s initiative, Mothers Get a Lyft. The program recently launched to help pregnant women schedule health care appointments and get transportation to them.
Other weavers in other neighborhoods focus on reducing food insecurity or making health care accessible to people who speak English as a second language.
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Meet Eskenazi Health’s five community weavers
You can meet and get connected to each person in the community weaver role by visiting the Eskenazi health clinic they are based at. You do not have to be an Eskenazi patient to have a community weaver help you. Here are the names and locations of the five health workers who can help you with free resources. We also included phone numbers for each of their health centers.
John Beiswanger: Far Eastside
📍Eskenazi Health Center Grassy Creek, 9443 E. 38th St.
📞 317-890-2100
Ikeyia Hicks: Northeast side
📍 Eskenazi Health Center Grande, 6002 E. 38th St.
📞 317-880-6002
Cazembe Day: West side
📍 Eskenazi Health Center Pecar, 6940 Michigan Road
📞 317-266-2901
📍 Eskenazi Health Center Blackburn, 2700 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St.
📞 317-931-4300
Renee Alford: International Marketplace
📍 Eskenazi Health Center West 38th Street, 5515 W. 38th St.
📞 317-880-3838
Olubunmi Fadeyi: Near east side
📍Eskenazi Health Center Pedigo, 1112 Southeastern Ave.
📞 317-880-1900
Want to become a community weaver?
To become a community weaver, you need a high school diploma or GED. People in these roles make about $18.50 to $22 an hour, to start.
Eskenazi isn’t hiring community weavers at the moment, but they also employ community health workers. It’s a similar job, but community health workers are more focused on helping Eskenazi patients.
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Mirror Indy reporter Sophie Young covers services and resources. Contact her at sophie.young@mirrorindy.org.
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