Health corps gives students hands-on work experience

The 2014-2015 class of Community HealthCorps members along with director Janice Brathwaite, pictured here at the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers.

A first job can be much more than a paycheck — it can shape the course of the rest of one’s career. Ensuring that young people have a meaningful first professional work experience is important. Through these first experiences, a new workforce is shaped. Partners HealthCare understands the importance of developing the workforce of the next generation, which is why they have collaborated with the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers to support the health center-based Community HealthCorps program.

Through the Community HealthCorps program high school or high school equivalent students and recent college graduates, along with veterans who recently joined the program, are given the opportunity to work in community health centers throughout the area for one year. During this year, members work with health center staff on a variety of projects.

This year, members’ projects include everything from helping patients navigate a health care setting to get the care they need, to exercise programs, to working with youth and more. Sixteen members have been placed in local health centers including Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center, South End Community Health Center, Brockton Health Center, Dorchester House Multi-Service Center, Lowell Health Center, Martha Eliot Health Center, Neponset Health Center, Brookside Health Center, Whittier Street Health Center, Codman Square Health Center and Manet Community Health Center.

“The best part of the HealthCorps program is that the members are gaining hands-on, valuable experience,” says Janice Brathwaite of the League.

Janice plays an essential role in the HealthCorps program acting as the program director, working tirelessly to ensure that all HealthCorps members are getting the most out of their experience. Janice not only supports members in their work at community health centers, but also carves out additional time for members to get together and connect over both their shared and different experiences. Through these meetings, members have the opportunity to expand their knowledge about life in community health centers and grow in their understanding of how each health center is unique.

“Many of the members are in their first year out of college and it is amazing to watch them transform over the course of their first year-long professional experience. There is so much growth and learning being done by everyone,” says Janice.

Many members enter the program with a desire to pursue some sort of health care career. But many come away from the year with new and better ideas about what direction to go in the health care field. Within the community health centers, members get to work with doctors, nurses, social workers, educators and many more that all play an equally essential role in the provision of patient care.

“The Community HealthCorps program is not only about giving young people meaningful work experiences, but also helps to instill the importance of expanding one’s horizons when considering career paths,” says James W. Hunt, Jr., President and CEO of the League.

A real exposure to what different kinds of work look and feel like can help an individual make an educated decision that can help set them on the right path.

Katherine Torres, a recent graduate of the HealthCorps program spent a year at Union Street Health Center in Somerville and calls the experience eye-opening.

“When I started my work as a member I was sure I wanted to pursue public health,” says Katherine. “Now that I have worked in a community health center, I’ve reconsidered how I can contribute to the health care field because there are so many ways to do so. I finished my HealthCorps chapter and am now pursuing a degree in nursing.”

The need for a strong health care workforce only continues to grow, which reinforces the value of programs like HealthCorps. By 2018, total employment in health care in the nation is projected to be 19.8 million.

“There is a great need for health care workers in our area, particularly in local community health centers,” says Matt Fishman, Vice President of Partners Community Health. “The Community HealthCorps members are providing much needed support to these health centers, while also doing important learning about their own career paths. We are excited about the contributions they are making to the health care workforce and look forward to watching for their future contributions as well.”

The Community HealthCorps program is a part of Corporation for National and Community Service AmeriCorps programs.