ACAM Empowers Young People to Pursue Health Care Careers

The Greater Houston Opportunity Youth Collaborative — an initiative of the Alliance of Community Assistance Ministries (ACAM) — partners with health care employers to identify urgent staffing needs, and connects young people not currently working or in school with the training to pursue high-demand health care roles.

Connecting Young Adults with Health Care Jobs

Greater Houston is brimming with resilient and optimistic young people seeking to launch successful careers and achieve financial prosperity. Through its Greater Houston Opportunity Youth Collaborative (GHOYC), ACAM is working to support young people to fulfill their goals. In partnership with community-based organizations, school districts, and health care employers, ACAM engages 16- to 24-year-olds who are unemployed, underemployed, or not currently in school, and coaches them along pathways to education or training that lead to employment opportunities in health care.

GHOYC works with local school districts to identify and engage recent high school graduates who do not have postsecondary plans. Through nonprofit service providers like United for College Success, BridgeYear, Memorial Assistance Ministries, and the United Way of Greater Houston, these young adults are connected to free or affordable training programs, robust services, and a guided pathway to health care employment.

Creating Tailored Pathways to a Prosperous Future

To create high-potential opportunities for young people and a reliable talent pipeline for Houston’s growing health care industry, GHOYC partners with some of the largest health care employers in the region, including Memorial Hermann. These partners identify the entry-level roles most affected by talent shortages and GHOYC fosters relationships with workforce training providers who can help young people build the knowledge and skills to excel in those career pathways.

Additionally, to ensure programming meets young people’s needs with the proper support, GHOYC created a Young Adult Action Advisory Council. These young leaders share lived experience of disconnection from school and gainful employment and are uniquely qualified to advise on policies and practices as well as support peers in accessing resources. This council gives clients who have leveraged the collaborative’s training and employment support an opportunity to strengthen GHOYC efforts and help others discover their path to success.

Expanding Efforts to Impact More Youth

In the coming years, GHOYC will scale its efforts by helping existing service providers expand their reach, onboarding new community-based partners, engaging more health care employer partners throughout Greater Houston, and supporting the design and implementation of reconnection strategies in one additional community within the Greater Houston area. The collaborative will also provide technical assistance and guidance to school districts and employers looking to create workforce pathways for young adults.

By connecting motivated young adults with community-focused organizations, training support, and local employers, ACAM is helping address workforce shortages and empowering the next generation of health care professionals.

Meet Diana

In high school, Diana realized she wanted to pursue nursing and decided to explore her options through real-world experience. Through the GHOYC, Diana enrolled in a certified nursing assistant (CNA) course with Memorial Assistance Ministries (MAM), which helped her boost her interview skills, connect with employers, and quickly land a job as a patient care associate. Now that Diana has experience working in nearly every hospital unit, she plans to complete her nursing degree and specialize in eldercare. “I’m the first person in my family to work in the medical field,” she says. But that didn’t last long. With Diana’s encouragement, her sister was certificated through MAM.