One year in, AmeriCorps boosts US public health workforce
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* Teddi Nicolaus

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FoodCorps, a national nonprofit, is hosting Public Health AmeriCorps service members in schools to help provide kids with nourishing meals, food education and more.

Photo courtesy FoodCorps

> “I have gotten a whole world’s worth of information and interactivity that I couldn’t even dream of when I was still a college student.”
> 
> — Pablo Verissimo

Before the pandemic, Farid Howard, 32, had never considered a career in public health. When COVID-19 hit, he had been working as a luthier, building and repairing guitars. But the guitar factory shut down when the pandemic hit, leaving him without a job.

One day, while reading the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s Twitter feed, an update caught his eye. It talked about a new partnership between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and AmeriCorps to combat COVID-19 health disparities in Los Angeles.

“I had never heard of AmeriCorps before that, and I had no experience in public health,” he told *The Nation’s Health*. “But AmeriCorps required no previous public health experience, so I saw it as a great opportunity to explore the public health field and see if it was right for me.”

As a member of Public Health AmeriCorps, Howard now works part-time with the health department as a community health worker. Along with a supervisor, Howard knocks on doors, pops into local businesses, strikes up conversations with people on the streets and attends health events around the city. The goal is to share information and resources related to COVID-19, vaccinations, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and opioid overdose prevention, including distributing naloxone.

Now, halfway through a one-year Public Health AmeriCorps term of service with the department, Howard is on a trajectory to complete an undergraduate program in health communications and has decided to aim for a master’s degree in public health.

Hailed by public health leaders as an innovative solution to the long-standing public health workforce challenge, Public Health AmeriCorps was established in 2021 to meet the public health needs of local communities by advancing health equity, increasing access to care and creating pathways to public health careers.

Often described as the “next chapter” in the AmeriCorps story, the program represents a partnership between CDC and AmeriCorps — the federal agency for volunteering and national service founded in 1993 by President Bill Clinton.

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A FoodCorps member teaches a student about growing healthy food. FoodCorps is one of more than 100 groups hosting Public Health AmeriCorps workers. More host sites are being sought for the national corps.

Photo courtesy FoodCorps

Supported by a five-year, $400 million investment from the American Rescue Plan Act, the program is anticipated to fund up to 5,000 positions over the next five years. To date, more than 100 state and local organizations from 32 states and two U.S. territories have joined Public Health AmeriCorps as host sites, receiving grant dollars totaling more than $90 million.

Bridging national service and public health, the program has succeeded in getting more “people power” into communities to address urgent public health needs, said Public Health AmeriCorps Director A.J. Pearlman, JD. Those needs include COVID-19 response, outreach and education, as well as addressing food and nutrition security, psychological first aid and chronic disease prevention.

“We are really excited for the attention the program is getting,” Pearlman told *The Nation’s Health*. “The public health workforce has been facing challenges for a long time, but the COVID pandemic really rolled back the curtain in terms of the shortage of employees that we have at public health departments across the country.”

In addition to hands-on experience and training in public health, Public Health AmeriCorps members receive a living allowance during their term of service, as well as health benefits and an education award at the end of their service that can be used to pay for higher education or repay student loans. And if they choose to continue in public health, members enjoy opportunities to connect and network with public health leaders around the country.

“We are giving folks a career pathway, hands-on experience and the training they need to pursue a career in public health through perhaps a nontraditional path that doesn’t involve the need for higher education,” Pearlman said, noting that the only requirements for serving in Public Health AmeriCorps are that someone be at least 17, have an interest in learning and be willing to serve.

Valeria Salgado, 18, of Hyattsville, Maryland, was able to check all three of those boxes when she applied to Public Health AmeriCorps in September 2022 to work with LAYC in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1963 as the Latin American Youth Center, LAYC’s programs and services address the needs of young people and families through opportunities in academics, arts, recreation, job readiness, safe places to live, health and wellness.

After graduating from high school, Salgado had planned to take a gap year and work at a pizza shop, but an uncle who worked at the center persuaded her to join the corps. With a desire to become a neonatal nurse, Salgado welcomed the hands-on training that equipped her to work in the center’s Sexual Reproduction Health Group and provide HIV and STI testing and education. Thanks to the experience, Salgado is now preparing to begin her nursing studies at a community college in Maryland.

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Workers with LAYC conduct community outreach. LAYC works to address the needs of young people and families through opportunities in academics, arts, recreation, wellness and more.

Photo courtesy LAYC

“When I first started working here, I was really shy and I kept to myself,” Salgado told *The Nation’s Health*. “This program helped me come out of my shell. They made me who I am now. If you get a chance to do this, take it. It can be life-changing.”

Similar words of gratitude are common among other AmeriCorps members, said Jacobo Larios, LAYC program coordinator.

“My members thank me and are very appreciative for the opportunity,” Larios told *The Nation’s Health*. “We don’t see many opportunities like this in other organizations, where internships are often more about, ‘Go and file paperwork,’ or that sort of thing. We give them important work, and this is why they see themselves as valued.”

A desire to feel valued and perform important work are among the top reasons Pablo Verissimo joined FoodCorps, a national nonprofit that places Public Health AmeriCorps service members in schools to provide kids with nourishing meals, food education and culturally affirming food experiences.

Verissimo learned about the corps in a food justice class at Rutgers University. Operating out of the Greater Newark Conservancy, Verissimo teaches elementary and pre-K students lessons tied to food, gardening and healthy eating, and works to support and maintain a school garden.

After school, he works with the middle school student council to clean and maintain the garden space. School field trips, workshops and conferences also fill his calendar, as do weekend events like Family Fun in the Kitchen, which engages families from an environmental and food perspective.

“I have gotten a whole world’s worth of information and interactivity that I couldn’t even dream of when I was still a college student,” Verissimo told *The Nation’s Health*. “If anyone is looking for effective change within their local community or to acquire knowledge about how to expound meaningful change, I would recommend taking a look.”

APHA is providing support for Public Health AmeriCorps service members during their time with the organization. Some of the members will be attending APHA’s 2023 Annual Meeting and Expo in Atlanta in November to present about their work at poster sessions. A Nov. 13 scientific session will also share information from host sites on the ways the program is advancing public health and equity.

For more information about Public Health AmeriCorps and to search for opportunities by state, visit [bit.ly/phamericorps](https://bit.ly/phamericorps)

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association