AMPHS is expanding its programs and seeking new members like you to join its team! Become a part of a dedicated team of volunteers and staff working towards expanding healthcare access among our most vulnerable communities.
Full-Time Positions:
Coordinator of Literacy, Education and Training Programs
Part-Time Positions:
Neighborhood Outreach Organizer
For more information or to apply, please contact personnel.resources@amphsonline.org.
AMPHS wants to hear from you this holiday season!
Between now and the end of the year, take a few minutes to write about the health and wellness needs of your community. What barriers are you or someone you know currently experiencing in the pursuit of a healthy life? Are you having any trouble accessing quality care? What kinds of health and wellness services do you feel would improve the lives of the people in your community, your family?
Share your story or idea by emailing us at nicholas.maistros@amphsonline.org or by tagging us and posting your message to Twitter or Facebook with the hashtag #Right2Health. Please, protect the privacy of your subjects by removing any identifying information.
At the beginning of the new year, we will aggregate your messages and use them to tailor our services, making your #Right2Health a reality!
In anticipation of the incoming administration, we at AMPHS are maximizing our efforts to protect the rights of our immigrant community members and to make health and wellness accessible to those in need.
This is our plan:
No matter the political situation, AMPHS remains devoted to advancing quality healthcare to those in need, regardless of income, insurance, or immigration status. We are here for our immigrant communities.
As with so many other grassroots organizations devoted to human rights and social justice, we at AMPHS are trying to anticipate the consequences of this presidential election. These are uncertain and frightening times—especially for the community members we serve, who are particularly vulnerable to a number of proposed policy changes, both in terms of their healthcare and their immigration status.
In recent years, we’ve seen a great deal of progress on these fronts. Thanks to the tireless efforts of activists across the country and the bravery of those who risked deportation by coming out of the shadows, President Obama unveiled his executive actions on immigration, providing deportation relief and authorization to work for nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants. With the passage of President Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act (ACA), barriers to healthcare were beginning to fall, and many who could not previously afford insurance were finally able to realize what we at AMPHS have always deemed a human right—access to quality care.
These successes were not easily won, and their opponents were quick to dismantle them. In June, the Supreme Court, locked in a 4-4 ruling, effectively deemed President Obama’s immigration action unconstitutional. And earlier this month, we saw the election of not only a president but a Congress (and with them the likely appointment of numerous right-leaning federal judges) poised to repeal the ACA and staunch the rights and security of undocumented immigrants and their families.
With these developments, how can we help but feel defeated? All of this progress just to be thrown swiftly back to zero?
But we have to remind ourselves that the political landscape, as turbulent as it seems, is not all that different now than it was when we began our fight. In fact, in many ways, it was worse. We didn’t begin by defending rights already afforded to the marginalized; we began without rights to defend. We began without visibility, without a network of support. We began without a movement.
From the start, AMPHS’ mission was to empower “individuals and communities to create their own local and culturally-sensitive health and wellness paradigms.” And it still is. We were founded on the principles of advancing healthcare to those in need, regardless of income, insurance, or immigration status. It’s what we’ve always done, and we’re learning how to do it better and better every day.
Yes, we may be disappointed, and we may be scared, but this is not a reset. We are not starting from scratch, because from the beginning, we’ve taken nothing for granted. All these years, and what do we have to show for them? We have a stalwart—and a visible—network of support that persists not because of the ACA, not because of DACA or DAPA, not because of any elected official. We have it because we built it ourselves. So we persist, so we continue to build on what we have, and we already have so much. We have each other.
We at AMPHS are closely monitoring these new developments, and we promise to keep our communities informed of their rights and resources. Please go to this link for a list of key updates on AMPHS’ programs and the president-elect’s policies, and do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns. Call us at (212) 256-9036 or email info@amphsonline.org.
We are here for you.
Hewett Chiu
President & CEO, AMPHS
Community members rally in Brooklyn, NY, to protect the rights of immigrants.
There are many uncertainties regarding President-elect Trump’s shifting policies on healthcare and immigration. AMPHS is closely monitoring these new developments and will provide updates as we receive them.
Here’s what we know so far.
AMPHS marches with NYC Council Immigration Committee Chair Carlos Menchaca.
No matter the political situation, AMPHS remains devoted to advancing quality healthcare to those in need, regardless of income, insurance, or immigration status. We stand in solidarity with our immigrant communities and will work as always to defend the human rights of the most vulnerable.
If you have any questions or concerns, please call us at (212) 256-9036 or email at info@amphsonline.org. We are here for you.
The Neighborhood Outreach Organizer is responsible for conducting outreach in Sunset Park for AMPHS’ health and immigrant service programs to spread awareness and empower community members to become independent and resource-driven. He or she will spread the word about AMPHS’ services in the field across small businesses and community organizations to enroll individuals in AMPHS’ free programs (including free health screenings and classes) and the DACA Education Initiative (a Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs program aimed at identifying individuals who qualify for DACA to assist them in applying and fulfilling their education requirement for DACA application). The Neighborhood Outreach Organizer reports directly to the Chief of Staff.
Primary Responsibilities:
Minimum Qualifications:
Time Commitment:
To Apply
Please submit a copy of your cover letter and resume to personnel.resources@amphsonline.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling first-come, first-serve basis until September 30, 2016.
Immigrant Rights activists demonstrate outside the Supreme Court. Photo: Allison Shelley/Getty Images
On November 20th, 2014, immigrant families across the country gathered to watch President Obama’s prime-time address. “For more than 200 years,” the President began, “our tradition of welcoming immigrants from around the world has given us a tremendous advantage over other nations. It’s kept us youthful, dynamic, and entrepreneurial. It has shaped our character as a people with limitless possibilities—people not trapped by our past, but able to remake ourselves as we choose. But today, our immigration system is broken—and everybody knows it.”
The President proceeded to unveil his historic Immigration Accountability Executive Action, which included an expansion of the current Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, as well as the creation of a new Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) program. This executive action would have provided deportation relief and authorization to work for nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants.
While there were still many questions, and though it was certain that opponents would immediately endeavor to block the action, it was still a moment of great hope. Perhaps the United States was finally making a shift, as a nation and a culture, toward progress, generosity—the recognition of the many millions in this country quietly contributing but hiding in the shadows. Perhaps things were really changing.
The recent ICE raids seem to suggest otherwise, and now that the Supreme Court, locked in a 4-4 ruling, has effectively deemed President Obama’s immigration action unconstitutional, the nation’s undocumented population once again has much to fear.
Unfortunately, disappointments of this sort are nothing new to our immigrant neighbors. But this fight is far from over, and we at AMPHS stand in solidarity with our immigrant communities. We will continue the struggle for immigrant rights—their right to work, under proper working conditions. Their right to provide for their families, and to keep those families together. Their right to education, to decent housing, to visibility. Their right to equal treatment under the law, to live free from the fear of discrimination and deportation. Their right to quality healthcare.
Despite this major setback, we at AMPHS still have hope for this country. We believe that change is not only possible, but necessary. As the President said in November of 2014, “we are and always will be a nation of immigrants…What makes us Americans is our shared commitment to an ideal—that all of us are created equal, and all of us have the chance to make of our lives what we will.”
We must settle for nothing less.
If you have questions about the Supreme Court decision, please contact us at (212) 256-9036 or info@amphsonline.org.
You can also attend New York Immigration Coalition’s town hall meeting on Thursday, June 30, or call their hotline on June 28 and 29 from 4pm-7pm.
AMPHS holds Mental Health First Aid training
It’s Memorial Day weekend, which means it’s the last weekend of Mental Health Awareness Month. But that doesn’t mean we can’t continue to spread awareness throughout the year on this critical and often misunderstood public health issue.
Mental health challenges—such as depression, anxiety, psychosis, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance abuse—are shockingly common in the Unites States. Would you guess that more than 16 million American adults are affected by depression in a given year? Or that 3.3 million American adults suffer from bipolar disorder? Or that over 11 million Americans will experience psychosis in their lifetime?
At AMPHS, we’ve found that the stressors often endured by the low-income immigrant populations we serve can lead to many of these mental health challenges. Inadequate housing, financial hardship, social isolation, fear of deportation—it is no wonder that a 2008 study conducted by the Carolina Population Center at UNC-Chapel Hill found 30% of Latino adolescents in North Carolina (93% of whom were not US citizens) showed signs of sub-clinical or clinical anxiety, and 18% showed signs of depression. The Asian Outreach Program at The Child Center of NY also identifies “the stigma still surrounding mental health and substance abuse treatment in traditional Asian cultures” as a particular obstacle for newly immigrated Asian children and adolescents at higher risk for mental health and substance abuse issues.
That is why we at AMPHS are making mental health a priority. With The National Council for Behavioral Health, we are providing Mental Health First Aid courses to help individuals work with those who are developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis. Identified on SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices, this training helps the public better identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses.
Based on the pioneering work of Mental Health First Aid founders Betty Kitchener and Tony Jorm, this 8-hour training certification course instructs participants on a five-step action plan to assess a situation, select and implement interventions, and secure appropriate care for the individual experiencing a mental health crisis. Thorough evaluations, in randomized controlled trials and a quantitative study, have proved this CPR-like program effective in improving trainees’ knowledge of mental disorders, reducing stigma, and increasing the amount of help provided to others.
This program is generously co-sponsored by Senator Jesse Hamilton, the Chinese-American Planning Council Brooklyn Community Center, and African Services Committee.
To learn more about Mental Health Awareness, visit Mental Health America whose awareness theme this year is Life with a Mental Illness, for which they’ve called on individuals to share what life with a mental illness feels like for them in words, pictures and video by tagging their social media posts with #mentalillnessfeelslike. All posts are collected here.
For more information on Academy of Medical & Public Health Services and our other training programs, visit www.amphsonline.org.
For more information on Mental Health First Aid, visit www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org.
On March 28, AMPHS President & CEO Hewett Chiu was invited to address the New York City Council on the importance of continued funding for Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito‘s Immigrant Health Initiative. Read Chiu’s full testimony below:
“Good afternoon. My name is Hewett Chiu, and I am the President & CEO at the Academy of Medical and Public Health Services (AMPHS). AMPHS is a not-for-profit healthcare organization in Sunset Park that provides free clinical screenings integrated with individualized health education and social services to the immigrant populations of New York City. Our mission is to deinstitutionalize healthcare and make it a basic human right for all New Yorkers. We provide our services free of charge and without discrimination to documentation status, socioeconomic status, and any other demographic factor. In the past six years we have been operating, we have grown right alongside implementation of the Affordable Care Act and NYS Medicaid Reform, and we have come to realize that both grassroots outreach and coordination of care are critical to ensuring the health and wellbeing of entire communities in New York City.
“As just one of many examples, we had a middle-age female Asian immigrant walk into our center speaking not a word of English. Let’s call her Ms. L. She initially came in because she wanted to check her blood pressure. Once the on-site clinicians began to talk to her and a certain level of trust was established, Ms. L opened up to us. It turns out she was under a lot of stress as a single mother raising three young boys as a new immigrant to our great city. She told us that several times, she had considered jumping off a cliff or into the ocean with her boys to take her family out of her agony. Serious conditions like mental health disorders, STDs, and HIV are so stigmatized in the immigrant populations that they are rarely discussed, but yet can be so prevalent. We find that we need to spend the time to conduct targeted public health interventions to ensure those with such conditions are properly screened for risk factors.
“What initially was just a blood pressure check turned into a lifesaving intervention that day – not just for Ms. L, but for three young children as well. We provided the medical screenings, initial counseling and guidance to Ms. L, and acted as a pair of ears that immigrants so rarely have in healthcare. We then seamlessly coordinated her next steps and made the proper referrals to a sliding scale mental health clinic for ongoing follow up care. Today, Ms. L is embracing life and supporting her boys through school.
“There are many more Ms. L’s out there. They do not know the resources available for them, and more importantly, they do not know the detrimental effects of not seeking care when they need to. The Immigrant Health Initiative is a key cornerstone to ensuring everyone in New York City will feel comfortable accessing appropriate health services at the appropriate time. It allows us to work closely with other vital community partners such as the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest to provide comprehensive wrap-around services that address a full continuum of care.
“Continued funding under the Immigrant Health Initiative will enable us to (1) leverage the grassroots model we already have and increase outreach to our immigrant populations in Sunset Park, a neighborhood identified by Mayor DeBlasio in October as being an underserved community for primary health care; (2) implement a new culturally sensitive public health education model to destigmatize specific serious health conditions through one-on-one outreach and counseling; and (3) more effectively coordinate care for our population, thus helping to reduce the administrative burden that providers today find they are facing. Ongoing coordinated preventive care is much more cost effective and a better intervention than emergency care, when it could already be too late. The Immigrant Health Initiative can truly help us save more lives, and I humbly thank the City Council for funding the initiative this past fiscal year and strongly urge the Council to continue fully funding this initiative.
“Thank you.”
AMPHS is expanding its programs and seeking new members like you to join its team! Become a part of a dedicated team of volunteers and staff working towards expanding healthcare access among our most vulnerable communities.
Program Coordinator
Program Assistant
Social Worker
Community Health Worker
Nurse Practitioner (Volunteer)
Chinese/Spanish Translator
Position Description
AMPHS seeks a passionate and skilled professional to join the operations team. The Program Coordinator plays a key leadership role in integrating clinical and social services and ensuring the smooth coordination of all Community Health Project programming activities among AMPHS staff and partners. The ideal candidate is a seasoned program manager and exceptional communicator, relationship manager, trainer and coach. He or she will identify and contribute to the development and execution of innovative solutions to grow program capacity and expand outreach within vulnerable immigrant populations. The Program Coordinator reports directly to the Chief Operating Officer.
Primary Responsibilities:
Coordinate weekly program operations
Build and maintain strong volunteer/staff and partner relationships
Ensure and track high-quality service delivery
Ensure program sustainability
Minimum Qualifications:
Time Commitment:
To Apply:
Please submit a copy of your cover letter, resume, 1-2 page writing sample, and most recent transcript (if still in school or recent graduate) to personnel.resources@amphsonline.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling first-come, first-serve basis until March 18, 2016.
Position Description
The Program Assistant is responsible for assisting in the implementation and administration of the health screening, education, and training programs at the Academy of Medical and Public Health Services. Responsibilities include event coordination, outreach, client communication, and basic reception and clerical duties. The candidate will work directly with Executive Management staff to ensure that the organization runs smoothly and efficiently.
Primary Responsibilities:
Minimum Qualifications:
Time Commitment:
15 hours per week; Saturday availability required.
To Apply:
Please submit a copy of your cover letter, resume, 1-2 page writing sample, and most recent transcript (if still in school or recent graduate) to personnel.resources@amphsonline.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling first-come, first-serve basis until March 18, 2016.
Position Description
The Social Worker is responsible for providing high-level oversight over the organization’s culturally-sensitive social service counseling program and presiding over the organization’s weekly Saturday health screenings. AMPHS’ unique, integrated clinical-social service program enables community members to receive direct social service counseling to connect them to the needed care immediately following each clinical encounter. The Social Worker is responsible for managing client cases and assisting community members in navigating resources in coordination with recommendations from the clinical team. The Social Worker is also responsible for establishing and maintaining a community referral network, facilitating workshops and overseeing a team of community health workers.
Primary Responsibilities:
Minimum Requirements:
Time Commitment:
To Apply:
Please submit your cover letter, resume, 1-2 page writing sample, and a copy of your social work license to personnel.resources@amphsonline.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling first-come, first-serve basis until March 18, 2016.
Position Description
The community health worker (CHW) is responsible for providing culturally-sensitive health navigation services to help patients and their families navigate and access community services and resources within the healthcare system, while guiding them to adopt healthy behaviors. CHWs will work primarily with immigrant families in Sunset Park, many who have limited access to healthcare. The CHW supports clinicians, the supervising social worker and program coordinator by providing an integrated system of support services that promotes and maintains healthy behaviors and addresses the social determinants of health affecting the local community. Primary function areas include social service counseling, advocating for individuals and community health needs, and facilitating community outreach workshops.
Primary Responsibilities:
Minimum Qualifications:
Time Commitment:
To Apply:
Please submit a copy of your cover letter, resume, 1-2 page writing sample, and most recent transcript (if still in school or recent graduate) to personnel.resources@amphsonline.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling first-come, first-serve basis until March 18, 2016.
Position Description
The Academy of Medical & Public Health Services offers free weekly Saturday health clinics for low-income, uninsured community members in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Screening participants often lack health insurance or experience language barriers that prevent them from accessing available health resources; for many, it is their first time receiving a health assessment in many years. During the clinic, AMPHS clinicians perform health screenings while partner healthcare agencies offer free specialty services, such as HIV and Hepatitis C testing, mammograms, and flu shots. AMPHS may also offer specialty theme-based services each month. At the beginning of the screening, AMPHS volunteers distribute health surveys through which it collects health data used to analyze community health trends and develop education programs.
The Nurse Practitioner will be responsible for presiding over AMPHS screenings to conduct basic and specialty screenings, provide long-term medical counseling, and facilitate health education workshops. The NP will identify risk factors and lifestyle changes that the community member should pursue, as well as follow-up treatment. He or she will then work collaboratively with the Social Assistance team to connect community members to the relevant services based on treatment recommendations from the clinical encounter. The ideal candidate is passionate about working with immigrant communities and has significant experience working with low-income populations who have had little or no access to care.
Primary Responsibilities:
Minimum Qualifications:
Time Commitment:
To Apply:
Please submit your cover letter, resume, and copy of your nursing license to personnel.resources@amphsonline.org. Candidates will serve independently; that is, providing a broad range of clinical services based on their own scope of practice, comfort, and level of licensure as an independent clinician volunteering at AMPHS sites and events. Candidates will be asked to submit proof of current professional liability coverage prior to commencing the position. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling first-come, first-serve basis.
Position Description
The Academy of Medical & Public Health Services (AMPHS) works with a predominantly Latino and Chinese community in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, bringing them accessible healthcare through free health screenings and education workshops. At the beginning of each screening, AMPHS staff collects demographic data from each participating community member to conduct analytical research on predominant health trends in the local community. AMPHS also holds public health workshops that educate community members in health access, disease management and prevention, nutrition and wellness. We are seeking fluent or highly proficient Spanish, Cantonese and/or Mandarin speakers to interpret for AMPHS constituents during open clinics and events.
Translators will also have the opportunity to engage in other community fieldwork projects that include conducting interviews and focus groups and community outreach alongside our community engagement team. Additionally, they will be responsible for assisting with other administrative projects, such as recording Chinese/Spanish segments for educational videos, translating educational literature, brochures, flyers, and other outreach material, and writing Chinese/Spanish blog posts for our online news portal.
AMPHS screenings take place Saturdays on a weekly basis; workshops take place on weekends and select weekdays. Translators will receive training in medical terminology, patient history-taking, and HIPAA prior to engaging in a service role.
Primary Responsibilities:
Minimum Qualifications:
Time Commitment:
To Apply:
Please submit your cover letter, resume, 1-2 page writing sample in English and Spanish or Chinese, and transcript (if current student or recent graduate) to personnel.resources@amphsonline.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling first-come, first-serve basis until March 18, 2016.
