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NYS Looking to Hire
CUNY and SUNY schools have been asked to fulfill a critical role in the NYS COVID-19 Contact Tracer Initiative recently announced by Governor Cuomo. As coronavirus testing increases, the need for increased contact tracing rises in tandem. Your help is needed most immediately this week to identify faculty and staff with requisite qualifications to participate in the Contact Tracer Initiative's interview effort in May to hire staff for the positions of Team Supervisor and Community Support Specialist.
Priority: Informational
New York State has officially launched the NYS COVID-19 Contact Tracer Initiative in an effort to recruit 6,400 to 17,000 tracers to help prevent the spread of the virus.
The Initiative will recruit staff for three positions: Contact Tracer, Team Supervisor or Community Support Specialist.
Contact Tracers: Reach out to the contacts of anyone with COVID-19 to assess symptoms, ensure compliance with quarantine and determine social support needs.
Team Supervisor: Lead a team of 20 Contact Tracers, and one Community Support Specialist who are working remotely using digital tools.
Community Support Specialist: Work with the team and the local health departments to address the physical/mental health, and social/human service needs of those contacted, especially those who are under isolation or quarantine.As part of the recruitment effort, all eligible applicants will be screened and go through one interview process. CUNY and SUNY have been asked to provide expertise to help with second interviews for the Community Support Specialist and Supervisor roles, which will be approximately 10% of the overall staff hired for the Initiative. Additional information is provided in an email from DOHME which you may have already received but that I reproduce below my signature line for your convenience.
In response, CUNY wishes to recruit 100 faculty and staff volunteers to support a series of 30-minute interviews for the Support Specialist and Supervisor positions. The NYS Initiative started recruiting for these positions on Friday, May 1st and seeks to offer second interviews to eligible candidates from May 11 through May 17. The expected time commitment is 4-5 hours/day for each volunteer interviewer, up to 3-4 days a week. Prior to initiation of the second interviews, NYSDOH will provide volunteer interviewers with job descriptions and sample questions to ensure that the candidates understand the role and the interviewers are best prepared to select the most eligible applicants.
In addition, DOH has asked that interviewers have a background or expertise in health or human services, so we are calling on HHS faculty and staff across our campuses to support this effort.
Patricia Simino Boyce, University Dean for Health and Human Services, will serve as the point person for our recruited volunteers and NYSDOH. In addition, we will provide administrative staff to support this effort internally and facilitate the necessary communications for interviewers, interviewees and with NYSDOH.Students across any of our programs may be eligible for the Contact Tracer position (which is a minimum of 20 hours/week), while health and human service students and graduates may meet the qualifications for the Supervisor or Support Specialist roles. We highly encourage faculty and career services staff work together to help students understand these roles through information sessions, review resumes, and offer guidance as needed to ensure that CUNY students have the strongest chances to secure these positions that are so vital to our recovery. The roles are not allocated to CUNY, our students are competing for these roles with the general public
If you or someone you know in New York State is interested in applying to be a part of the Contact Tracing team, click here: https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/get-involved-how-you-can-help
