Health center receives $243K from AmeriCorps

MIDDLETOWN — The Community Health Center announces the allocation of $243,072 in AmeriCorps funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service for the second year in a row.

CNCS is a federal agency responsible for AmeriCorps and other national service programs.

The grant will continue to support a national collaborative, including CHC and health centers in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Massachusetts and New York, aiming to reduce and prevent prescription drug and opioid abuse, according to a press release.

Sixteen AmeriCorps members serve in these six states, conducting outreach, patient engagement, community education and prevention services in highneed areas under the guidance of the AmeriCorps Program Manager, Felicia Goodwine.

“We are excited to continue with year two as we work collaboratively to reduce opioid and prescription drug use,” Goodwine said in a prepared statement. “Our AmeriCorps members across the sites are exceeding our expectations by providing outreach, education, and awareness in the communities they serve and we are proud to have them.”

“What sparked my interest in AmeriCorps was the hybrid of work and service,” CHC AmeriCorps member Carolyn Spencer said in the release. “I specifically wanted to work with CHC, because I am interested in becoming a clinician, and wanted to work with an organization that provided health care to underserved populations.

This funding is provided by the federal agency for volunteering, civic engagement, and national service programs like AmeriCorps. For more than two 25 years, more than 1 million dedicated Americans have joined the organization, and pledged to ‘get things done,’ according to the agency.

This year, the 75,000 AmeriCorps members serving in schools, nonprofits, community and faith-based organizations will do the same as they rebuild communities, support veterans, fight the opioid epidemic, prepare students for success, foster economic opportunity and more.

For information, visit AmeriCorps.gov/join.