Minnesota Public Health Corps: A New Model For Building The Governmental Public Health Workforce

Governmental public health agencies in the US are understaffed, and ongoing shortages will have a detrimental effect on their ability to provide basic public health services and protections. Public Health AmeriCorps was established in 2022 to support efforts to create a stronger and more diverse public health workforce nationwide. The Minnesota Public Health Corps, one of the largest Public Health AmeriCorps models, is a capacity-building program that places AmeriCorps members directly into governmental public health settings across the state. We used data from the first year of the Minnesota Public Health Corps (2022–23) to describe the experiences of thirty-five sites participating in the program. We also examined preliminary findings about how it shaped AmeriCorps members’ skills and...