WellShare advances the community health workforce by providing scholarships, training, and employment opportunities to rising community health leaders.

Through partnering with WellShare, Maria transformed her desire to serve her community into a meaningful career.

We want to share Maria’s journey, highlighted by the passage of one year, beginning and culminating at the same community event.

WellShare Senior Program Manager, Raquel met Maria at the Telemundo health fair in September 2023. Maria was new to Minnesota and looking for volunteer and employment opportunities to serve her Hispanic community. 

Raquel shared about an upcoming cohort for WellShare’s Community Health Worker certification scholarship program. This program provides a full scholarship for CHW certification and paid internship hours with Wellshare. Raquel met with Maria the following week and connected her with WellShare’s HR Manager.

Within the month, Maria started the CHW cohort. She began working through WellShare’s Department of Human Services DHS-CLAS grant to support our work with the Hispanic community through focus groups and outreach events.

This September, Maria represented WellShare at the Telemundo health fair. She has completed her CHW certification and is well on her way to a meaningful career advancing health equity.