A Win-Win for Denver: Expanding Public Health Services Today While Building Tomorrow’s Workforce
Success StoriesThe Denver Department of Public Health is using the Public Health Infrastructure Grant (PHIG) to strengthen its public health workforce and build long-term pathways into the field. In this video, Veronika Hanna, Program Supervisor with the Denver Department of Public Health, explains how PHIG funding has supported paid interns across multiple divisions, launched an AmeriCorps Community Health Worker Apprentice Program, and created a youth public health summer camp. By braiding PHIG and AmeriCorps funding, Denver has trained new public health professionals for a full year while expanding direct community services.
Through the Community Health Worker Apprentice Program, apprentices have connected with more than 1,500 Denver residents, providing services ranging from suicide prevention to safe firearm storage to behavioral health support. At the same time, Denver’s three-day public health camp introduced high school- and college-aged students to real-world public health work, including food and pool safety inspections, public health investigations, environmental assessments, medical examinations, and more. The camp also focused on introducing young people to career options available across the department. Together, these PHIG-supported programs are helping Denver invest in both its current workforce and the next generation of public health professionals, expanding services today while building the public health workforce of tomorrow.
Video Transcript
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
How have you been able to use PHIG funding?
Thanks to the Public Health Infrastructure Grant (PHIG), we have been able to hire and pay interns, and we have been able to hire them across multiple divisions within the Denver Department of Public Health. We have also been able to create a program called the “AmeriCorps Community Health Worker Apprentice Program,” where we use braided funding through AmeriCorps and PHIG to hire multiple new public health professionals and teach them about public health for about a year. We have also been able to create a youth summer camp focused on teaching people about public health and the types of services we provide.
What was the motivation behind these programs?
For our AmeriCorps Community Health Worker Apprentice program, it was really a response to COVID – it is a way to expand and grow the public health workforce. So, during COVID, we saw that it was very hard for people to access services. We saw a decline in the workforce. So, us investing in the Community Health Worker Apprentice program represents hope, and is a way to create a stepping stone for the future of public health. For our summer camp too, we wanted a different approach and a different way to approach multiple age ranges. Thankfully, we were able to get age ranges starting from freshmen in high school up to college-aged students to come in and to learn about all the services and all the work that is possible for them in the future.
What’s the impact of your community health worker apprenticeship?
Our community health worker apprentices have been able to be in contact with at least 1,500 Denver citizens. Services range from suicide prevention to safe arm storage, as well as behavioral health services. They’ve done so much, including environmental quality services, safe air, and clean water. They’ve really been invested and engaged with the community, and it’s kind of a give-and-take relationship. We invest in their education and invest in them for that full year, and in return they give us an abundance of services and an abundance of connections with our community. We’re super proud of that program, and we’ve been able to have 12 people go through the program so far.
What’s the impact of the public health camp?
We were successfully able to implement a three-day public health camp, and we had 16 students go throughout the camp, and it was a great opportunity. We exposed students to public health investigations, we exposed them to tobacco cessation work, we even had a food truck come in, and students were able to go within the food truck and do inspections. We had pool inspections as well! We had students assess our community pool to see how we can keep people safe. We also hosted a a career panel. Our public health department has the Office of Medical Examiners in it as well, so we had students go to the Office of the Medical Examiners to learn about services related to public health and related to that medical field and the medical part of public health.
Our last day was focused on environmental quality, so our students did water assessments and they did air assessments. They learned about all the different ways that we work with the city, how we work with the state, and the different approaches to monitor environmental quality and to keep our water and our air safe. It was a wonderful experience, and we learned a lot. It was our pilot program, and we hope to expand the program. Thanks to PHIG and their support, it made it possible for us to connect with multiple divisions, and it was really easy to bring together. It was a really successful three days.
Why is this work so important?
I think for us, we just want to expose the new generation to those services that public health provides. Public health services are so valuable and so important, and they save lives. To me, I think public health and investing in the infrastructure is a big deal, and I’m really proud that we get to invest in the future of public health as well as the current workforce. And thanks to PHIG, we have been really successful, and I hope that we continue to fund our great programs and we continue to serve the city and county of Denver and the citizens of Denver who need these services.