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Erie High students complete new program to jumpstart medical careers

Erie High students complete new program to jumpstart medical careers

Yahoo28-05-2025

Students at Erie High School were recognized for their participation in a pilot program at UPMC Hamot that introduces seniors to what it takes to be a health care professional.
The UPMC Junior Scholars program provided these students a jump start to their careers.
Two juveniles arrested for assault on Erie street violinist
Students took part in paid positions where they acted as patient and family concierges, offering compassion and support to families during their hospital stay.
'Five of these six are moving on to college education and will work here in different capacities. We also have one that just took a full-time position in our transport department as well,' said Josh Hoffman, director of nursing administration at UPMC Hamot.
'It helped me a lot because now I see how difficult it can be, and how I can work around it being difficult,' said Jonathan Wassolu, an Erie High senior.
Erie Co. Veteran Memorial Park construction will soon be complete
'I would say my experience went very well. It was eye-opening and hands-on,' Chanele Niyukuri, another Erie High senior, told us.
Students were handed certificates on Wednesday and demonstrated their work.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Flood of tributes for Minnesota Democrat killed in ‘targeted violence'
Flood of tributes for Minnesota Democrat killed in ‘targeted violence'

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Flood of tributes for Minnesota Democrat killed in ‘targeted violence'

Colleagues paid tribute to Melissa Hortman, the top Democratic lawmaker in the Minnesota state house of representatives who was killed on Saturday, with Governor Tim Walz saying the state 'lost a dear leader and I lost the dearest of friends'. Hortman was killed along with her husband, Mark, in what Democratic colleagues in the state described as an act of 'targeted political violence'. Fellow lawmaker Josh Hoffman and his wife were also shot, reportedly by the same gunman, and are expected to survive. The former speaker of the chamber, Hortman, 55, was serving her 11th consecutive term as a state legislator when she was assassinated, apparently by a man impersonating a police officer, at her home in Brooklyn Park, a suburb north-west of Minneapolis. Hortman represented a reliably safe Democratic district in which she won re-election repeatedly by significant margins. She played a key role in passing recent legislation expanding abortion rights, legalizing marijuana for recreation, and requiring family and medical paid leave from employers. After Democrats and Republicans won an equal number of seats in the House last year, Hortman led a boycott of the early weeks of the legislative session while the results of two seats were challenged. A Republican, Lisa Demuth, then took over as speaker. Hortman was praised for her work ethic, negotiation skills and pragmatism. 'She had a vision of what she wanted the state to be like, and she knew it was going to take a lot of work,' her former campaign manager Jerry Gale told the New York Times. Gale said Hortman worried about her safety: 'I think it did cross her mind at times on the campaign trail,' he said. US senator for Minnesota Amy Klobuchar said she was heartbroken by the loss of her friend in a post on X. Related: The attacks on Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota: what we know 'Melissa was a good friend and we started in politics at the same time and were always there for each other,' she said. 'She was a true public servant to the core, dedicating her life to serving Minnesotans with integrity and compassion. 'Melissa's legacy will endure, but today we grieve deeply,' Klobuchar added. Hortman and her husband had two children, according to her state legislative biography. She entered politics after earning a degree in political science from Boston university; a law degree from Minnesota law school; and a master's in public administration from the Kennedy school at Harvard. She also interned for former US senator Al Gore and served as a legislative correspondent for former senator John Kerry. Walz was the first to say that Hortman and her husband had been targeted in what appeared to be a 'politically motivated assassination'. Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), said in a statement: 'Speaker Hortman was a leader in every sense of the word – from ushering in free lunch for our kids, to protecting women's rights and reproductive care, to standing up for Minnesota families. 'She led our state legislature with humor, grace, and determination to get things done for Minnesotans across the state.'

The fight to reduce homeless service worker burnout in grueling industry
The fight to reduce homeless service worker burnout in grueling industry

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time10-06-2025

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The fight to reduce homeless service worker burnout in grueling industry

Josh Hoffman sat before a room of aspiring homeless service workers and talked about why it's important not to get discouraged. To make his point, the veteran in the field recalled a story of a woman with mental health issues who repeatedly refused to move into a new building because because birds in the neighborhood told her it wasn't safe. As a result, she remained on the street, but a couple of years later things changed. Hoffman said his team received a call from another organization saying the woman was now housed and was willing to follow through with the application process because she had already done it several times with them and felt comfortable. "If we had never gotten that call we would have figured ... our work with her hadn't really had an impact on her life, but it did," said Hoffman, now director of homeless services at the Little Tokyo Service Center. "Planting seeds," one attendee remarked. "That's the perfect analogy," Hoffman replied. 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"I hope you have very successful careers and protect your minds and bodies and give a lot of good back to the community," she told the fellows. As the group walked out, Snakeoil urged them to take a box of Narcan, the anti-overdose medication. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The fight to reduce homeless service worker burnout in grueling industry
The fight to reduce homeless service worker burnout in grueling industry

Los Angeles Times

time10-06-2025

  • Los Angeles Times

The fight to reduce homeless service worker burnout in grueling industry

Josh Hoffman sat before a room of aspiring homeless service workers and talked about why it's important not to get discouraged. To make his point, the veteran in the field recalled a story of a woman with mental health issues who repeatedly refused to move into a new building because because birds in the neighborhood told her it wasn't safe. As a result, she remained on the street, but a couple of years later things changed. Hoffman said his team received a call from another organization saying the woman was now housed and was willing to follow through with the application process because she had already done it several times with them and felt comfortable. 'If we had never gotten that call we would have figured ... our work with her hadn't really had an impact on her life, but it did,' said Hoffman, now director of homeless services at the Little Tokyo Service Center. 'Planting seeds,' one attendee remarked. 'That's the perfect analogy,' Hoffman replied. Helping people get off the street can be a grueling, poorly paid job, one where workers often feel unsafe and lament that they haven't received enough training on how to help, or an explanation of what to expect, when dealing with people facing some of the worst moments of their lives. Recent studies have found those factors contribute to widespread burnout and turnover among L.A. County homeless service workers, harming the ability to solve a crisis where thousands sleep on the streets. Now, a new weeklong fellowship is trying to change that by helping aspiring workers be ready on Day One. In April, the Los Angeles Unhoused Response Academy, Laura for short, welcomed 15 fellows as part of its second cohort. Fellows received a stipend to attend and learned about different medicines to reduce side effects of streets drugs and how to use the county's online system that service workers employ to connect people to housing. They also learned about actions in their personal lives they could take to reduce burnout and toured multiple service providers on Skid Row. At the Midnight Mission, fellows ate at the cafeteria that feeds hundreds a day, toured a dormitory, a soon-to-open women's 12-step program and an education center with computers, books and musical instruments. At the end, the mission's chief communications officer, Georgia Berkovich offered fellows her number. 'You can always call for questions, ideas — whatever,' Berkovich said. Justin Szlasa, who founded the Laura fellowship, said that it can take months or years for homeless service workers to gain the contacts and knowledge dispensed over the five-day learning program. By fast-tracking training, the fellowship seeks to educate aspiring workers about what they are getting into and give them the tools to succeed, including a plethora of contacts they can turn to when problems arise. 'You are less likely to burn out if you are embedded in a community and you have peers and a support system,' said Szlasa, the director of homeless initiatives for the Future Communities Institute, which puts on the fellowship. The first class in October was funded by actor Keanu Reeves, who is a friend of Szlasa's, with the second bankrolled by the United Way. Szlasa is working to find funding for additional sessions. Meghan D'Zmura, a former server at an upscale Italian restaurant downtown, was in the April group and described the fellowship as a 'CliffsNotes master class' on social work that helped her land a job in May as a resident services coordinator at the Weingart Center on Skid Row. D'Zmura said her experience with homelessness as a child motivated her in the past to volunteer to help unhoused people, but there was also so much she didn't know before joining the fellowship, including the nuts and bolts of how to navigate a complicated web of agencies and services. 'It will be a very fulfilling, but probably taxing, position,' D'Zmura, 35, said shortly before starting. 'But I am prepared.' One contributing factor to burnout is pay. According to a 2023 Rand Corp. study, L.A. County homeless service workers on average earn about $40,000 to $60,000 a year, leaving little left after paying for rent and other necessities. The analysis focused on front-line workers employed by nonprofits who serve as a backbone of L.A. County's homeless response and connect people with housing, job training, food assistance and medical care. Nonprofits executives told report authors that they would like to pay more, but the government contracts that fund their work don't pay enough to allow it. If pay is lifted that can mean less money for other things like beds, of course. But Rand economist Lisa Abraham, who co-wrote the report, said higher pay could pay dividends in the homeless sector, citing one study that found that after wages were increased in nursing homes, residents had fewer preventable health conditions and reduced mortality. 'These front-line workers are directly in touch with the homeless population,' Abraham said. 'Having a talented, strong workforce that feels supported, that feels motivated to work ... that's likely to translate into outcomes for their clients.' Los Angeles city and county officials have taken some steps recently to enable higher pay for at least some workers, but advocates say more is needed. Szlasa said he hopes training like that in the Laura fellowship can make a difference by creating a strong argument to life pay as workers learn to better help more people. 'The long-term fix for me is more productivity,' said Szlasa, who is also a commissioner for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Belit Paulissian was among the April fellows. She decided to go into the homeless service industry when her work as a TV producer dried up. While in line the other month at the the Midnight Mission cafeteria with her fellow students, Paulissian said that if she lands a job in homeless service work she expects to make less than what she was earning when the entertainment industry was healthier, but that she wants to find stability while helping others. 'Hopefully,' she said, 'I am going to do this.' Later that day, Paulissian and others walked a few blocks to the Sidewalk Project's drop-in center, which caters to unhoused women who use drugs or engage in sex work. The organization's executive director, Soma Snakeoil, explained how people can come to the center to receive supplies that help make drug use safer and get help if they experienced sexual violence. Others simply need to rest after staying awake for nights in an attempt to protect themselves from assault. 'I hope you have very successful careers and protect your minds and bodies and give a lot of good back to the community,' she told the fellows. As the group walked out, Snakeoil urged them to take a box of Narcan, the anti-overdose medication.

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