Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Beverly J. McElmurry¹, Chang Gi Park¹, Pei-Yun Tsai¹, Aaron Buseh², and Marisela Mirelez¹. (1) University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Nursing, 845 S Damen Ave, 11 Floor (M/C 802), Chicago, IL 60612, 312-996-7061, ptsai3@uic.edu, (2) University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, School of Nursing, Cunningham Hall, 1921 E Hartford Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53211

This is a report of the long term outcomes for Chicago Health Corps (CHC) participant members. The CHC, an AmeriCorps program, was established in 1994 to provide opportunities for people who are interested in providing health services to communities. It uses a primary health care (PHC) framework to encourage and strengthen community empowerment and health. Participant volunteers are recruited from local urban communities and/or the national AmeriCorps applicant pool. Most participants plan to pursue employment or careers in health care. Previous follow-up studies of AmeriCorps service members have been limited due to lack of scientific evaluation, supporting documentation, and data. Furthermore, the long term effect on past member participation has not been reported due to the difficulty of obtaining longitudinal information. The lack of long term evaluation of the program is a concern in achieving sustainable support from policy makers. Former CHC members were surveyed to identify long term outcomes on members in terms of career development and ongoing volunteer services. A total of 153 former CHC members, who had successfully completed a term of service (1700 hours), received a mailed questionnaire developed by the investigators. The results document past members level of volunteer services and civic engagement. All of the respondents indicated the CHC experience facilitated their work and career development. The member CHC education and community service experience improved past members' career and educational development; it has a significant long term influence on community volunteer services experience and civic engagement. Community participation strengthens community health capacity.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain the CHC/AmeriCorps program application of a Primary Health Care framework to improve community health capacity.
• Identify the long term outcome of CHC program for CHC participants career and educational development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered