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AmeriHealth Caritas D.C. Graduates Fifth Class in Workforce Readiness Program

THE AFRO — It was an emotional moment for many during the April 9 graduation ceremony of the AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia “Pathways to Work” program. Seven people received certificates showing they had finished the 12 week paid internship program, which provides training in hospitality and customer service skills in a classroom environment and then learning about healthcare while onsite at AmeriHealth Caritas.

Published

7 years ago

April 16, 2019

Oakland Post

By George Kevin Jordan

It was an emotional moment for many during the April 9 graduation ceremony of the AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia “Pathways to Work” program. Seven people received certificates showing they had finished the 12 week paid internship program, which provides training in hospitality and customer service skills in a classroom environment and then learning about healthcare while onsite at AmeriHealth Caritas. Interns are paired with a mentor during the internship process.

Graduates of this cohort include: Eseomon Aledan, Autumn Fennell, Iyana Davage, Robert Jordan, Melissa Spencer, Tonya Rawlings and Tamara Moses.

Karen Dale, market president for AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia, spoke to the AFRO about how the program got started.

“The idea I had was first and foremost we needed to be good stewards in the community we serve,” Dale said speaking of the impetus for the program. “This represents an investment in our community. We know that health is more than healthcare. So to have resilient communities, people must have the basics and essential and if you don’t have a job a lot of the basic and essentials are harder to have.

“So if we can pour in and help people who want to work – and most people want to work – what they need are all the right tools and resources and sustainable support in order to be successful. That’s the piece we thought we were uniquely positioned to provide.

Dale said that she and other program leaders continue to listen to graduates, learn and grow making new changes even with the current cohort.

“We’ve changed in a couple of ways,” Dale said. “One, we realized that diversity in the class is important. And diversity meaning wee have people of varying levels of experience. We have more of a mix so people can see the possibilities they can support engage and mentor each other. A little bit more peer support built in and we’ve seen wonderful success from that.”

Tonya Rawlings, a D.C. resident and graduate was able to secure full time employment with AmeriHealth prior to even completing the internship. For her, the journey back through unemployment was foreign to her, having worked since she was 17-years-old. However what she learned about herself and her capabilities will hopefully carry her beyond her current career.

“Pathways to Work” graduate Tonya Rawlings (Right) receives the Sonya Dupont “Perseverance Award” from Stephanie Hafiz, Director of Member Engagement, AmeriHealth Caritas D.C. (Photo by George Kevin Jordan)

I didn’t know what unemployment was,” Rawlings said. “When it happened I had just come out of a major surgery.”

Rawlings said she started as a registered medical assistance but moved to the administrative side when she couldn’t do the medical side due to an injury. When she lost her job she was shocked and unprepared for what came next.

“I had been in the medical field all my life,” she said. “I didn’t know unemployment I didn’t know homelessness.”

Rawlings said that thankfully she only had to spend one night sleeping in her car before her son found out and helped her. But joblessness had an emotional toll on her.

“I hid it from my kids, and staying place to place,” she said. “It was hard. I didn’t know how I was going to make it. And all that stress.”

And the stress piled on as she lost her mother to cancer and her fiance to a pulmonary embolism six months later. The Pathways program was a source of hope, and offered her a place to see a larger picture for her life. She was able to take yoga, and learn about meditation. During the internship she even created a vision board.

“I didn’t want to come out of my dark space,” Rawlings said. “The Pathways program saved me mentally as well as physically. I got back to that positive me.”

She was so moved by her experience, she wants to one day start her homeless facility.

The Pathways program is open to all D.C. residents.

AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia is a Medicaid managed care health plan with a mission to help members get care, and maintain health and wellness for themselves and their community.

The next round of internships begin in the fall of 2019. For more information please visit www.amerihealthcaritasdc.com.

This article originally appeared in The Afro.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

1 week ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

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1 week ago

March 1, 2026

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

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2 weeks ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke