UNE receives Education Partner Award from FedCap Rehabilitation Services

FedCap Rehabilitation Services in Biddeford has recognized the University of New England for its commitment to providing health education lessons to people seeking employment and economic wellbeing.

FedCap, a program providing people with education and resources to achieve sustainable employment, recently presented UNE with the Education Partner Award for a series of seminars focusing on health and wellness education.

The seminars, presented annually, were developed by public health students in the School of Population Health within the Westbrook College of Health Professions. They focused on timely topics that FedCap clients can incorporate into their personal and professional lives, such as cold and flu prevention, smoking cessation, and winter preparedness.

Health professions students in the Care for the Underserved Pathway (CUP) Maine Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Scholar Honors Distinction Program presented the seminars. The CUP AHEC Scholars program provides opportunities for UNE health professions students to work with underserved populations in rural Maine communities. It is part of the Maine AHEC Network, a workforce development program aimed at alleviating health care workforce shortages.

“The health and wellness seminars provide an opportunity for students to meet the community-based service learning requirements of the CUP AHEC Scholar program,” said Ian Imbert, M.P.H., CUP AHEC Scholars program manager, who received the award on behalf of UNE and Maine AHEC. “FedCap clients also have curricular requirements that they need to meet, so the partnership is a win-win for both UNE and FedCap.”

FedCap Site Manager Sianeh Omeeze presented the Education and Training Partner Award to UNE on March 11. FedCap was launched in Maine in 2017. The Biddeford office is one of 16 FedCap Opportunity Centers across the state.

Once enrolled in the FedCap program, clients are expected to participate in a prescribed curriculum of workforce development trainings, which have included UNE’s health and wellness education seminars for the past two years.

Students who participated in presenting the seminars said the lessons have relevance beyond their specific topics.

“As an osteopathic medical student, I understand that there is a strong relationship between building economic wellbeing and living a healthy lifestyle,” said Anna McLean (D.O., ’22). “I helped deliver the influenza lessons in the fall and discussed many of the same prevention techniques that we are hearing we should practice to prevent spread of the COVID-19 disease.”

Additional students who participated include Courtney Stern (D.O., ’22), Annie McGregor (D.O., ’23), Kristen Kelliher (D.O., ’23), Adrian Hale (D.O., ’23), Esra Omeroglu (D.O., ’23), Katherine Buscemi (Dental Hygiene, ’21), Kristyn Gordon (Dental Hygiene, ’21), and Taylor Usko, B.S. ’19 (Public Health).