"Area Health Education Centers (AHECs) are known best for assisting health profession students to become aware of health careers, explore and train in community-based health agencies, and receive housing support while on clinical training in communities, as well as community education and continuing educational programs," said Sharon Norman, EdS, RN, Center Director and CEO of Blue Ridge AHEC located in Rome, Georgia. Blue Ridge AHEC serves twenty counties in Northwest Georgia. "Wehn students have access to education in health careers with hands-on activities, they see a way to reach their dream. Perhaps they always wanted to be a health professional, but didn't realize that being a radiation therapist, as an example, is exactly what fits them. The students have a variety of activities to enjoy and participate in while living here for four, six or more weeks. We know that the more time a student trains in an area, the more likely it is that we can recruit him or her to our area. Health Care impacts our lives in so many ways. We hope the Northwest Georgia community and anyone will support this continuous giving campaign."

The Blue Ridge AHEC's "Health Careers Opportunities Lead to Healthy Communities" campaign promotes raising awareness of the very real benefits a health careers-rich educational experience has on students--whether they are in middle school, high school, college health professionals program, and/or med schools. Research indicates a powerful correlation between clinical education and improved health careers opportunities development. When students have opportunities to learn about health careers, and have hands-on activities, they realize the importance of education toward their future. Their self confidence increases, scores improve, and their clinical and reasoning skills are refined -- and those are just a handful of benefits.

Our goal is to raise at least $300,000 through contributions to sustain our student housing and travel support; to provide fun health careers camps and academies; and to provide webinars for learning in the home, at school, or at the office. Your support in this "Health Careers Opportunities Leads to Healthy Communities" campaign will help bring health careers and clinical training opportunities to the lives of students through the AHEC's educational outreach, impacting the life of each student we help. 

Over the past 10 months, Blue Ridge AHEC coordinated 121 shadowing experiences, 6,349 hours of shadowing, and 174,308 hours of clinical training support. Blue Ridge AHEC reaches more than 3,000 students in K - 12. More than 500 of these students are in health care programs such as nursing, medical doctor, doctor of osteopathic medicine, physician assistant, dental (through a dentistry program at GHSU/MCG), physical therapy, speech therapy, dietitian studies, pharmacy, and other allied health specialties. We also assist RNs to get back into nursing through a Georgia Department of Education approved program:  Nurse Reentry. We provide support to Healthcare Science educators (Healthcare Professionals) from Georgia to achieve the distinguished title of Healthcare Science Industry Certification.

We truly are developing and training our future health professionals with the guidance and support of many health professionals. JOIN us by giving to the students.

With our 15th year coming up, if we have many gifts of $15.00, we can build our bridge for support.

• A gift as little as $50 will help kids experience and participate in Health Careers Camps.
• $150 will assist a student with travel.
• $500 will help a student with housing.
• $15,000 will help us support students in a house in a rural area.
• $135,000 will provide support to pay off housing for two houses and a garage apartment (14 beds).

It's that simple. Give a little or as much as you can. Provide free housing for students while on coordinated training through our Blue Ridge AHEC. Help us open and sustain student housing for our college and medical school level students in rural areas. These areas include: Blue Ridge, Ellijay, Jasper, Chatsworth, Rossville, Trenton, Summerville, Bremen, Douglasville, Dallas, Cobb County, Cherokee county, Cumming, Dawsonville, and other areas of our twenty counties in Northwest Georgia.