SHARE YOUR SERVICE THROUGH MENTORSHIP: 2017 Corps Community Day Event 

Each year, the Community Health Center Association of Connecticut (CHCACT) hosts a "Corps Community Day" event to celebrate the National Health Service Corps (NHSC). The goal of the event is to celebrate NHSC clinicians within the state, and to raise awareness about the NHSC program and its impact on underserved communities across the country. The NHSC provides scholarship and loan repayment to primary care medical, dental, and behavioral health providers who work in NHSC-approved sites, including federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). Participating in the NHSC program is a great incentive for clinicians to work in CT FQHCs!

Last Thursday, CHCACT, in collaboration with the CT Department of Public Health, Eastern CT Area Health Education Center (Eastern CT AHEC) and the federal Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), hosted a 2-hour speed-networking event for Corps Community Day. Approximately 23 NHSC participants, health professions students, residents and providers interested in primary care and the NHSC programs had the opportunity to network with each other, find mentors and celebrate the NHSC program. This event marked the fifth year in a row that CHCACT has participated in and celebrated Corps Community Day with CT’s NHSC clinicians, who work hard to serve various CT communities throughout the state!  

Marc Camardo of the CT Department of Public Health spoke about using NHSC as a great recruitment tool to attract and retain providers across the country to the CT FQHCs. According to Marc, there are currently over 200 primary medical care, mental/behavioral health, and dental care providers working in underserved communities throughout Connecticut! Leon Latino of HRSA also gave a brief history of the HRSA scholarship and loan repayment programs and their impact on primary care access in low-access areas; CHCACT’s Dr. Bruce Gould spoke about the essence of working as a primary care clinician.  

We were elated to see future aspiring clinicians from CHCACT’s new AmeriCorps program, the Southwestern AHEC and Eastern AHEC AmeriCorps programs, and students from the University of Bridgeport, present and eager to meet and learn from past and current NHSC clinicians.  

CHCACT thanks Marc Camardo, DPH for being the primary sponsor of the event; Leon Latino, HRSA for joining us from Boston; and Cherie Poirier and Michele Scott of Eastern AHEC for providing the raffle prizes, as well as their support with coordinating the event.  

Dionne Kotey, Program Coordinator

Also, a very special thanks to the NHSC clinicians – Dr. Lindsay Marr, StayWell Health Center; Dr. Mari Iturbe, Southwest Community Health Center; and Michael Williams, APRN of Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center – who volunteered their time to speak with aspiring clinicians about the NHSC programs and what it means to them to be working within CT’s FQHCs.