National Health Corps to help tackle Delaware vaccine delivery

A minimum of 15% of service hours work must be spent on activity that helps address “structurally oppressive policies, procedures and practices” that contribute to health disparities. That includes things like identifying demographic or cultural groups that are underrepresented in a particular program, or reaching out to underrepresented groups to better understand what barriers exist that reduce their representation.

Those who work under the program will receive a stipend of $15 an hour and are also eligible for education funding under the National Service Trust. Those who complete their full term of service will get an educational award equal to the maximum value of the Pell Grant for the year in which they worked. That was about $6,300 in 2020.

“The American people are our nation’s greatest strength and they are instrumental in helping us tackle this national emergency,” said Karen Dahl, who was appointed as senior advisor on COVID-19 for AmeriCorps under President Joe Biden’s administration last week. “My task is to find ways to harness that strength, and this pilot is a perfect example of the type of creative solutions that will help us get the job done.”

“I could not be more excited,” said U.S. Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, who has long advocated for using AmeriCorps to combat the pandemic crisis. “In this unique moment, where the United States faces a once-in-a-century pandemic … renewed nationwide focus on equality and equity challenges in our health care, housing, education, opportunity and policing systems, this is an opportunity for us to re-examine how we deliver public health in the United States, how we care for each other, and how we help build more equitable opportunities for each other.”