Community Impact

UMass Chan is committed to positively impacting its surrounding community. We do this by supporting community programs and initiatives that advance the interests of both the medical school and the community by providing resources, donations of in-kind services, volunteerism, and assisting and co-hosting various community events and initiatives.  UMass Chan is classified as a “community engaged” university by the prestigious Carnegie Foundation, a national honor that ranks top institutions in the benefits if confers to the world outside its campus walls.

Year after year, UMass Chan employees are the single largest contributor to the Massachusetts State Employee Charitable Campaign (COMECC).  In addition to proving financial resources, students, faculty and staff volunteer directly to improve lives in the community.  Whether by preparing and serving food to homeless  veterans, staffing free medical clinics, working with foster children, collecting food, or engaging in any of dozens of other initiatives, members of the UMass Chan community truly have an impact.

UMass Chan distinguishes itself as a leader through its support of K-16 educational initiatives to promote careers in the health sciences.  UMass Chan and its partners carry out a myriad of programs to create opportunities for students and increase the number of under-represented and disadvantaged students entering careers in health care and biomedical research, initiatives include:

• UMass Chan Medical School provides 20 Worcester Public School students with an opportunity to work in a six week paid summer employment program each year.  Building Brighter Futures with Youth is a community-based initiative that exposes young people to career options in the healthcare setting.
• Led by UMass Chan, the Worcester Pipeline Collaborative (WPC) works with the Worcester Public Schools to prepare, educate and train K-12 students in the system’s North Quadrant for the region’s health care and science oriented economy, culminating in especially intensive involvement at Worcester East Middle, Worcester Technical High School and North High School. 
• In addition, the Office of Outreach Programs runs multiple tuition-free, residential summer academic programs for high school and college students from educationally and economically disadvantaged backgrounds and/or from ethnic groups underrepresented in biomedical research, biotechnology and health professions, to prepare students for further education and careers.
• The Emerging Professionals Summer Internship Program provides 8 undergraduate college students a ten-week paid internship. This program is designed to provide talented college students from underrepresented backgrounds with the opportunity to explore potential administrative careers in an academic health science center.
• UMass Chan donated $1,575,000 to the City of Worcester to enable the Worcester Public Library to open four new branch libraries across the city, each located in an elementary school, and to support Worcester Technical High School's innovative health and biomedical science programs.