The Chicago Health Corps, an AmeriCorps program in its sixth year, provides a unique opportunity through community service to train health professions students and Chicago community residents in the application of Primary Health Care principles to address community health needs. Each year the Chicago Health Corps (CHC) recruits and trains 30-36 Corps members, predominantly African American and Hispanic individuals, who are placed in selected community sites that offer Primary Health Care services to Chicago’s underserved families. Chicago Health Corps Members expand the capacity of community health agencies through implementing creative programming, and providing a combination of outreach, health education, and case management services within 3 issue-based teams (Environmental Health, Youth Health, Personal Health). Through an innovative recruitment and training process, the Chicago Health Corps provides opportunities for minorities to enter health professions and cultivates future health professionals with the skills needed to deliver community-based primary health care. Over the past 5 ˝ years, the CHC has provided 156 volunteers with the opportunity to participate in the program for a total of 153,748 hours of service provided at 40 sites around the city. A comprehensive follow-up study of 108 former CHC Members was conducted this year to determine the percentage of Corps Members pursuing a health career, the numbers of former Corps Members employed in a primary care setting, and whether they continue to be involved in service activities. The presentation will provide a description of the program including recruitment and retention, training methodologies, and results of the follow-up study.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to: 1. Describe the recruitment process of the Chicago Health Corps. 2. List three training components used by the Chicago Health Corps. 3. Summarize the findings of the follow-up study
Keywords: Minorities, Service Learning
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.