Partner Perspectives are written by members of the Community Consulting Board through the Center for Civic Engagement. These articles provide examples of partnerships, best practices, and other insights from the viewpoint of Illinois State University’s community partners.
Since 1946, the McLean County Health Department has worked to protect the health and wellness of everyone who lives, works, and plays in McLean County. The whole community benefits in some way from the various programs and services provided—even those who never walked through the doors of the health department. Throughout the years, the McLean County Health Department and Illinois State University have established a mutually beneficial relationship, collaborating on many projects.
A particularly successful partnership between Illinois State and the McLean County Health Department occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic and was evidenced through the contact tracing program along with the support provided by nursing students at mass vaccination clinics. Since the end of the Federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency declaration, the McLean County Health Department has focused on being an active partner and leader in developing the future public health system’s workforce through increased collaboration with local institutes of higher education.
The Health Department has hosted 28 students from Illinois State since 2020. Among them were undergraduate professional practice students, master’s degree students from the University’s School of Family and Consumer Sciences nutrition and dietetics program and the School of Social Work, student nurse externs, and interns working in the Health Department’s Emergency Preparedness Program and Environmental Health West Nile Virus surveillance.
Grant funding recently allowed the McLean County Health Department to increase paid public health internship opportunities, such as those with the Health Promotion Program. The program is focused on raising awareness of factors that help support positive health behaviors and outcomes through education, including diabetes prevention and community outreach. The Health Department’s new mobile medical unit, in particular, is helping bring outreach and health promotion efforts to all parts of McLean County.
Maggie Martyn, a senior studying public health at Illinois State University, is an intern with the McLean County Health Department Health Promotion Program this spring semester. When deciding on placement for her internship, Martyn said that the McLean County Health Department was her top choice because there were many areas of interest in it that stood out to her, specifically the Health Promotion program.
“The idea of making a positive impact on people’s lives through education, research, and public events excites me, and I love knowing that I’m involved in something that’s helping people live healthier lives,” said Martyn. Health Department interns like her get a chance to jump in and get hands-on experience with public health services. This includes working directly with the agency’s programs in the office, at health fairs and community events, and developing internal employee wellness activities and initiatives.
According to Martyn, she is also learning more about her major and improving her professionalism through her internship tasks. Her favorite part so far has been connecting with her supervisor and other employees at the Health Department. Megan Wilson, program manager at the Health Department, has worked with Martyn and other university students as they completed their internships in her program.
Wilson stressed that Illinois State is wonderful to work with, and the instructors have made it easy by providing support to her and the students along the way, helping to make it a successful experience for all. The internship works are now listed in Collaboratory, a publicly viewable and searchable online database utilized by Illinois State to connect and enhance information about (and support for) its community engagement, relationships, resources, activities, and outcomes.
The McLean County Health Department is thankful for the ongoing collaboration with Illinois State, which gives students the chance to learn more about the field of public health and allows Department employees to share the joys of public service. With increasingly more people interested in public health, the Health Department looks forward to many more years of working with the University to protect and promote health.
