Summer Youth Success Stories

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Summer Youth Work Experience Program

Humility of Mary Health Partners

This year, MCTA’s Youth Department decided to take the Summer Work Experience Program a step further by introducing an ethics class for youth who worked at sites where there wasconfidentialinformation.The staff focused the session on healthcare in hopes that medical sites would be more aptto take summer workers if they had some training on confidentiality and HIPPA laws.

HMHP was pleased with the performance of the students assigned and attribute it in part to the ethics class.Director of Human Resources, William Sillitoe, expresses “We strongly believe that because of that training, our students were very much focused on privacy and confidentiality, professionalism and performing their job tasks at their very best.”

Eight youth were assigned between the Belmont and Boardman HMHP sites.Participants performed Transport, Housekeeping, Media Services, Dining Services, and Human Resources duties as part of their health care work experience.To get them started, the youth participants were given a half-day orientation that integrated a facility overview. Department leaders also spent time to familiarize the students to their work areas and assignments.

At the conclusion of the work experience program, each student was required to complete a PowerPoint presentation about their learning experience. This year the annual student presentation luncheon was held August 5. Mr. Sillitoe credits the work experience presentations to Molly Seals, Sr. Vice President, Human Resources and Education. They were designed to focus the students on learning and having the students show the work they completed throughout the summer. Itwas seen as an avenue to make the work experience meaningful and focused - a true learning experience. It also gave the summer participants an opportunity to let the staff know how much they enjoyed the opportunity and communicate their future goals in the medical field.

MCTA’s summer work experience program benefits the youth and community employers alike. Mr. Sillitoe believes that by providing youth with on-the-job health care experiences, it is hoped that many will select health care as their career of choice in the future.Myiesha Makaabya is a product of that ideology. She was hired into the hospital’s Environmental Services Department shortly after the end of the program.