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Back to school: League-Suffolk Program in 9th year

9-25-09 Feature Story:

Marking its ninth year, the League-Suffolk University program is underway with 24 students poised to obtain a certificate in Community Health and Community Health Center Management by June of 2010. This year's class members hail from 17 health centers and were accepted through a competitive application process.

The program provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the community-based health care field and seeks to strengthen their overall skills in an array of areas, including health service management, human resources, management information systems, grant writing, marketing, and financial management.

Students participate in five, five-week training blocks, each of which contains two teaching modules. The module topics were developed with the input of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers' executive and education committees, Suffolk University's Public Management Department and health center senior managers. The experiences of past graduates are also taken into consideration.

Each training block takes place on five consecutive Fridays; participants are released from their duties in order to attend. However, in an effort to prevent backlogs in the execution of their duties, students are given a three to four week break between blocks.

The League collaborated with Suffolk University in 2001 to develop this one-year certificate program in response to the lack of educational opportunities for not-for-profit health center middle managers; 222 health center employees have graduated from the program since the first class met in September 2001.

Click here to find out more about the program.