In response to critical needs in public health, especially among local health departments serving rural communities, the Cornell Health Impacts Core (CHIC) is providing free access to our 15-week Public Health Essentials (PHE) certificate program.  The program is aimed at public health practitioners who are either new to the field or could benefit from a public health strategic skills refresher. 

We are currently offering the program for free to teams of 2 – 6 people serving a rural health department. Due to funding restrictions, we are limited to providing this training to teams within State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Health Departments serving rural communities. 

You and your team can strengthen your public health skills through a flexible online learning platform in as little as 5 hours a week for 15 weeks. This training is self-paced and includes tailored feedback and guidance from expert public health facilitators.

You can sign up below or read on for more details about the program, curriculum outline, and success stories! 

 “I wish I could have done something like it when I started with the health department years ago.”

Past PHE participant

About PHE

Cornell University’s Health Impacts Core (CHIC) has developed an interactive online capacity-building program called Public Health Essentials (PHE) that helps build public health workers’ core competencies and strategic skills (curriculum overview).

PHE has been awarded the Public Health Learning Navigator Quality Seal and has been used to upskill more than 1,500 public health workers in the U.S. so far. Those who complete the 80-hour certificate program report increased confidence and capacity across all strategic skill domains. It is effective for those new to the field of public health, those who have been working for some time, and those with or without a bachelor’s or master’s degree (ref1)(ref 2).

Building the Public Health Workforce of the Future

With support from the CDC, we can now offer this free training to 40 teams of public health workers who support and serve rural communities. We aim to partner with local or state health departments interested in upskilling their staff to support improved reach and impacts and/or investing in staff to support retention and promotion efforts.

“The course is rigorous enough to make it worth my time. I’m learning something and stretching myself.”

Past PHE Participant

Impacts

To equip individuals to engage in applied public health work, Cornell University delivers hands-on “just in time” learning to build confidence and ability.

Adults learn best when learning is self-directed, adds to their experience, is practical, and is focused on problem-solving. As such, Public Health Essentials incorporates a combination of asynchronous online learning and applied learning activities delivered and supported by Cornell instructors, reinforced by peer-to-peer course discussions, and in-person video meetings with peers and mentors.

With mentoring, learners complete project work that is directly applicable to their county, including county resource guides, county demographic and health profiles, statements of need/opportunity, and outreach and communication plans to better engage with underserved communities.

 “I’ve gained an understanding for how important my role can be to improving public health in my community.”