Why We Serve: An Inside Look at Public Health AmeriCorps

SUMMER JOHNSON:
This is Public Health Review. I'm Summer Johnson. On this episode, how partnering with AmeriCorps helped one health department meet community needs.

MICHELLE ARNOLD:
So, initiatives that are like this, in this partnership with AmeriCorps is not only benefiting the students but also helps us to build a more engaged and community-minded public health workforce.

JOHNSON:
Welcome to Public Health Review, a resource of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. On each episode, we explore what health departments are doing to tackle the most pressing public health issues facing our states and territories.

Today, an AmeriCorps fellow and a health department join us to talk about their partnership and explain the program's impact not only administratively, but to constituents. Michelle Arnold is the Health First Indiana project manager at the Lake County Health Department in Indiana. Arnold's team was looking for the best way to implement some of the county's most vital public health projects when they decided to try something new- a partnership with AmeriCorps.

We'll also hear from Jessica Baker, a public health specialist with Indiana AmeriCorps. After spending almost 20 years working in healthcare, she decided to pursue a degree in health administration. We sat down with both to discuss the program's impact.

JESSICA BAKER:
My first semester of my senior year, they put a call out for anybody interested in working for public health AmeriCorps. So, I read about it, I signed up and I got interviewed. And I used my first year, because this is my second term serving, to realize I just fell completely in love with the entire field. So now I'm getting a graduate degree in public health and serving my second term at the Lake County Health Department.

JOHNSON:
Michelle, what made your health department decide to partner with AmeriCorps?

ARNOLD:
Personally, as someone who has been a long time student myself, I truly value opportunities that provide hands-on experience in real world settings. I've seen firsthand how impactful that on-the-job learning can be, not just for personal growth, but for building practical skills that extend far beyond the classroom, right? So as a health department, we're also eager to encourage greater volunteerism and foster stronger partnerships with local schools.

So initiatives that are like this and this partnership with AmeriCorps is not only benefiting the students but also helps us to build a more engaged and community-minded public health workforce.

JOHNSON:
Jessica, tell us some of the duties that you handle day to day.

BAKER:
So I actually do quite a bit. I fill in small gaps and larger gaps everywhere. So, Lake County is huge. I don't know if you know anything about our region, but it's a very large place and we only have one health educator on staff at the moment. So, I started teaching both our Alzheimer's education and some dental education for the county that may go a little bit further. It may not. We'll have to see as time goes where else I'm needed to do that.

A community needs assessment was something that Michelle also wanted to work on. I started that almost immediately coming into the health department. And right now, it's with data just getting ready to be launched, but I wrote the needs assessment and everything that needed to go along with it, you know, with help from my peers.

JOHNSON:
What does that work in Alzheimer's education look like?

BAKER:
Sure, so I partnered up with the Alzheimer's Association, which as you know is all over the world to try and provide help for people and their families that have been touched by Alzheimer's and other dementia. So, they pulled me in as a community health educator and I trained with them to be able to provide knowledge. So I offer the classes virtually and in person. Starting in May, I'll be going out to nursing home to offer the classes and you know, it just kind of makes you an expert on helping people learn where they can go for help and what signs to look for and how to be more comfortable and the bigger reasons as to why it is better to be diagnosed early rather than later. Many people think that forgetting things is just a normal part of aging and it's really not. So it is something that needs to be checked out.

JOHNSON:
It sounds like not only are you doing a lot for the department, but you're also collecting valuable experience across all different areas of public health.

BAKER:
Absolutely. I have made so many connections in my two terms with AmeriCorps, but you know, my first term I served remotely and I very much enjoyed that with a county that's about three and a half hours away from where I live. My second term, you know, being served in the place where I live, work and play is very near and dear to my heart. So, I've been able to meet so many professionals and people from our community that are working so hard to provide services to residents in need. And it really is a calling. It's something that I hope to continue for the rest of my career.

JOHNSON:
Michelle, what kind of support were you looking for to get from Jessica when her role began?

ARNOLD:
So, once we learned that we would be bringing on a new member, I took a comprehensive look at both our current and our upcoming initiatives, as well as any of our existing gaps in our efforts. My primary goal was to create an experience that would be mutually beneficial. And I wanted to ensure that while our team receives the support needed to move our initiatives forward, I wanted the member to also have a meaningful opportunity to contribute in a substantial way. So, what I did is I focused on identifying a project or a program perhaps that the member could truly take ownership of, something that they could develop and see through from start to finish. And the idea was not only to provide structure and purpose, but to also align the work with their own professional interests. Ideally, it would be an experience that leaves them with valuable skills, insights, and a sense of accomplishment that they can carry with them in their future. So, when I brought Jessica in, we sat down. I had a whole list of ideas that I wrote down.

We had some harm reduction, the aging population, and like Jessica had mentioned, our first community needs assessment here in Lake County. And I really asked her first, “hey, what are your interests first and foremost?” And what's your experience? What's your interests? What are you looking to get out of this? Just so that we can, again, make that mutually beneficial. And so we went over kind of what we were working on in our current initiatives and where we were wanting to go with some of our initiatives.

And we just kind of decided together what we're going to move forward with. So, one of our top priorities in Lake County is to run our community needs assessment. And we're unique in this county. We're one of two in Indiana that has multiple jurisdictions with several different health departments.

So, a lot of our needs assessments throughout the community and a lot of our health care and school assessments, they include all of Lake County and sometimes they may include Lake County and Porter County or Lake, Porter and Jasper County. So, we don't really have a detailed targeted assessment for our jurisdictions that our health department serves. So that was one of our top priorities for this year.

JOHNSON:
It sounds like the community needs assessment is a pretty major project.

ARNOLD:
Yes, yes. You know, it's a very unique opportunity for our health department. It hasn't been done in probably decades, I would imagine. And then it hasn't been done to the target that we're doing, so within our jurisdictions. So of course, we'll have zip code data come in from, like, Gary and East Chicago has their own health departments. We'll get information from there. And of course, we'll forward that to their health departments, but it will help us really identify how we can spend our funding and how we can address the needs of our specific jurisdictions. So, we really wanted to be that detailed and thankfully to the AmeriCorps and Jessica, we're able to get that out and prioritize that this year much sooner, as well as do it in-house. I think that assessments are really important when they're done by the community or by the health department that's serving them rather than, you know, a third party.

JOHNSON:
Since this is the first time your department has worked with AmeriCorps, what was it like for your team when Jessica came in?

ARNOLD:
Yeah, you know what, Jessica just, her personality, she just like walks in and she introduced herself. We introduce her to the whole department. She's really proactive. Our entire department loves her and she's very helpful to everybody. If anybody needs any support, she's very engaged. An example, we have her also, Jessica, you didn't mention the health fair. Oh my gosh.

BAKER:
So that's a huge project.

ARNOLD:
So, she's planning a gigantic health and resource fair for Lake County. That's something again, we haven't had events like that in our county. Having her here has made us able to kind of work on those projects is really, really a benefit. But she started an internal committee. So, she's got some colleagues from each department joining her committee to help kind of carry out this health fair. So, helping from planning and implementation, all of that. So, she works really well and our health department was very happy to have her.

JOHNSON:
Michelle, how did you make sure Jessica was involved and having a positive experience while also making sure that your department was getting as much as possible out of the placement?

ARNOLD:
So, if I could offer advice to any supervisor preparing to bring an intern or a member onto their team, it would be to approach the experience with intention and a mindset of mutual growth. Too often, internships are treated as short-term help or busy work assignments. You find people shredding or scanning. We don't want that, right? But when done right, they can be incredibly valuable, not only for the intern, but also for the organization.

And taking the time upfront to assess your team's needs. Not just the immediate tasks that need to be done, but also the broader goals and the gaps or the passion projects at your health department that haven't yet found the right person to bring them to life. Also getting to know the interns' interests, strengths, and professional goals. And when you align these two perspectives, you create a truly collaborative experience. And as I mentioned, one of the most impactful things that you can do is to give interns ownership of a meaningful project, something that they can see through from start to finish. And it helps them build confidence, learn to navigate challenges and develop a deeper sense of purpose in their work. Plus, it allows them to walk away with a concrete accomplishment that they can speak to in future job interviews or other academic endeavors.

JOHNSON:
Jessica, were you surprised at all by the depth and the importance of the tasks that you were assigned?

BAKER:
Yes and no. Okay, so I walked in with more experience than a typical intern, you know, right out of a bachelor's degree. So, I knew that I had more to offer than just, you know, shredding or making coffee runs or answering calls. What did surprise me is that rather than just assigning me to an area that Michelle did sit down and say, what are you entrusted in? These are all the spots that we have gaps that we need to fill in.

But what would you like to do? And that it has been consistent through my term with her so far. I'll bring her a question about something and she'll say, what would you like to do to fix it? She doesn't run anything for me. She's there as a sounding board. And then I can go out and I can really, as she said, take ownership of whatever it is that I'm working on and run with it. And I think.

A lot of that happens too, because I was able to develop a mutual trust in our working relationship. If I came in and sounded like I had the refusal to do any certain tasks, I don't think it would have went over as well. But because I came in willing to do absolutely anything for anybody, I think it's went better than it could have for some.

JOHNSON:
Jessica, now that your placement is coming to an end, what's next?

BAKER:
So, all I can tell you for sure is what's next is I will be working within Lake County. Whether I serve with the health department or I serve with another social organization, I will be within Lake County. And I know that I will continue providing the Alzheimer's education where I can.

ARNOLD:
You know what, the partnership with the Alzheimer's Association, you know, that's a perfect example of something that she could take with her. You know, you don't have to be a health department employee or work for any particular organization to be a health educator through the Alzheimer's Association. And that opens opportunities as well. You know, so having those pieces that you can take with you outside of here, you know, of course, we'd love to keep our interns and keep Jessica.

But if it doesn't happen that way, there's something really great that she can take with her. And we know that we'll see her in the community, whether it's here at the health department or whether it's with one of our community organizations or maybe even doing something on her own. We know that because she's developed those great relationships and has tangible work to take with her.

JOHNSON:
Michelle, did Jessica's involvement with your department lead to any partnerships or special relationships that might benefit your department in the future?

ARNOLD:
I would say yes, of course, the health fair is a great opportunity because she's speaking with all of our Health First Indiana partners, but also our partners that are just, know, I want to say Health First Indiana, but really just our health department partners and our community organizations. So, she's developing that routine, a kind of rapport with them and keeping in contact with them. But she's also now joining with different communities and different councils. So like Geminis Head Start, for example, is a community organization and they have invited her to sit on one of their mental health committees. And I think that that's really important as well.

JOHNSON:
Was the health fair Jessica's idea or was it something else on your list that you wanted to get done?

ARNOLD:
When we first met, that was something that she had said, you know, from a previous health department that she worked at, she had the experience of running a health fair in that county. So that was something that she was passionate about to kind of bring to Lake County. That was kind of one of those mutual things where we also have some initiatives that we're wanting to do in the north and the south end of Lake County. And so, she just kind of, I'll work on the health fair, let me do it. And I said, okay, here you go take it and then that's where she started the committee and she's working with all of our community partners.

BAKER:
Yeah, I really want to just put a little plug in there that it's not just a health fair. I made it a health and resource fair. So, we will have a mix of health resources on site along with other resources. For instance, we're having ASPIRE come and they can help people sign up for insurance. We have many different social service organizations that'll be on site for harm reduction and, you know, domestic violence and therapy.

My goal is really from birth until death, there'll be something at this fair for any age. If people walk in and they need some type of resource, food, I start, put a school supply initiative in there. I'm hoping to be able to get all of that out for the kids before they start school. So really anybody who walks on site to this fair should have some type of resource that they can get to accommodate a need that they have whether it's just for their physical health or for something within their families and their homes.

JOHNSON:
And that's what public health is all about, right? Providing resources and meeting needs. And that's why we get into it.

BAKER:
When you go to work in public health, it's something that should be understood to a person who is coming in. You're not going into it for glory. You're going into it to help people. And there might be a lot of wonderful things that you do on a day-to-day basis to help others that really won't be recognized. And they need to understand that that's a part of it. And it's a wonderful part of it.

ARNOLD:
Yeah, I agree and our health officer, Dr. Vavilala, says that all the time. We're not in it for glamour. So, it's not a glamorous job and I was at the leadership symposium and Dr. Weaver was just really reminding all of us at our local health departments throughout Indiana that we are really resilient. And she was really inspired by the work that we do.

You know, because we're talking about funding cuts and everything nowadays. It's just the landscape that we're in. So, she was just really inspiring us that, you know, how we inspire her by working, you know, we've been underfunded in public health for so long that, you know, we're resilient. We'll pick it back up, you know, pretty much. So, I don't want to say like word for word. Obviously, I don't remember verbatim, but that was just kind of my biggest takeaway from her is we don't do it for the glamour and we don't do it for the big salaries and the big paychecks and the big recognition. We do it because we're passionate about it and that's what makes public health so special and that's what keeps it around.

JOHNSON:
Thank you for listening to Public Health Review. If you like the show, please share the episode with your colleagues and on social media. And if you have comments, questions, or ideas, we'd love to hear them and we'd love to hear from you. Just email us at pr at astho.org. Never miss a show by hitting the follow button on your favorite podcast player. Also, stay up to date on everything happening at ASTHO and in public health by tuning into the Public Health Review Morning Edition. We cover news like this every weekday morning in under five minutes. Look for the link to the newscast in the show notes for this episode. For Public Health Review, I'm Summer Johnson. Be well.