Dear Presidents and Provosts, We have a pressing and unique opportunity for the CUNY community to respond to the COVID-19 crisis and we are seeking participation from faculty and staff across the University. New York State has officially launched the NYS COVID-19 Contact Tracer Initiative<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__coronavirus.health.ny.gov_assistance&d=DwMFAw&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=-6rlgNRaSNB4h-US8pWUnbOhZvnVvNigj1UFERnac1o&m=h_m3E6nsWsfOCTMgDTV9XzynaJZDl7ubFOOLWTtIMxI&s=bMBQYNKdoL29JL_V5VGSDuBIqKICO49elU7_U1Gz_b0&e=> 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<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__careers-2Dpcgus.icims.com_jobs_5244_contact-2Dtracer_job&d=DwMFAw&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=fAbL6arMPVzOhLBwREg0Y1pd8Z7aBDcK_9_nKy4CXus&m=01ROSARnsYvyvuFuFTRBgNG8NKeU3SiWQJd7HDE-OV8&s=6OIucT79C8cGMYB2ux9ZIO1ORlKI81cfWrdJzltDft8&e=>, Team Supervisor<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__careers-2Dpcgus.icims.com_jobs_5245_team-2Dsupervisor_job&d=DwMFAw&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=fAbL6arMPVzOhLBwREg0Y1pd8Z7aBDcK_9_nKy4CXus&m=01ROSARnsYvyvuFuFTRBgNG8NKeU3SiWQJd7HDE-OV8&s=mfNna9NC2VSQ17COw5xXkuIgNt5zQ5pJQ1mafV0F6fU&e=> or Community Support Specialist<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__careers-2Dpcgus.icims.com_jobs_5246_community-2Dsupport-2Dspecialist_job&d=DwMFAw&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=fAbL6arMPVzOhLBwREg0Y1pd8Z7aBDcK_9_nKy4CXus&m=01ROSARnsYvyvuFuFTRBgNG8NKeU3SiWQJd7HDE-OV8&s=ljmHMAbna4pthg_yL9KGa1HLlxpYwZYPdF_0Jd9T7Gc&e=>. 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. Please encourage faculty and staff to contact Patti at patricia.boyce@cuny.edu<mailto:patricia.boyce@cuny.edu> by Thursday, May 7th if they are interested in serving as an interviewer or have any questions. More information will be provided in the coming days. In the meantime, please also encourage CUNY students and graduates to apply for any of the three available positions. Please note: 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. Thank you for supporting this request at this challenging time. Once again, this effort provides an example of how the CUNY community responds to the State's "Call to Action" during the crisis. All the best, JL -- José Luis Cruz, Ph.D. Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost The City University of New York Dear Partners: We hope you are keeping healthy and safe during this COVID-19 pandemic. We are reaching out today because you or your organization has expressed interest is assisting with New York State's new ambitious and urgent effort to curb the spread of COVID-19. The aim of this initiative will be to call every person diagnosed with COVID-19, establish all contacts of this person, and proceed to call and maintain ongoing communication with every contact. In addition, the team will support the isolation and quarantine of individuals, as appropriate in cooperation with the Local Health Department. This includes virtual needs checks and referral to community resources as needed. This contact tracing initiative is in tandem with statewide-wide efforts to increase testing, improve communication and knowledge of effective strategies to reduce transmission, and implementation of isolation and quarantine. This will fortify efforts to control the pandemic in NYS. New York State plans to hire a team of 6,400 to 17,000 staff statewide, depending on the projected number of COVID-19 cases, to support the NYS Department of Health (NYSDOH) and Local Health Departments (LHDs) to perform contact tracing in communities across NYS. To meet the scale and scope of this nation-leading program, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Vital Strategies: Resolve to Save Lives and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health will support building the team through a three-step process: recruitment, interviewing and training. Our first goal is to help the state identify and recruit a robust Contact Tracing team to be a part of this ambitious and urgent effort. To be considered, candidates must be a New York State resident 18 years of age or older; meet the position description requirement; go through an interview process; and complete a training and certification program. New York State is looking to immediately fill the following roles: * Contact Tracers: reach out to the contacts of anyone diagnosed with COVID-19 to assess symptoms, ensure compliance with quarantine and determine social support needs. * Team Supervisors: lead a team of 20 Contact Tracers, and one Community Support Specialist who are working remotely using digital tools. * Community Support Specialists: 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. Click here if you or someone you know in New York State is interested in applying to be a part of the Contact Tracing team. https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/get-involved-how-you-can-help<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__coronavirus.health.ny.gov_get-2Dinvolved-2Dhow-2Dyou-2Dcan-2Dhelp&d=DwMF-g&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=-6rlgNRaSNB4h-US8pWUnbOhZvnVvNigj1UFERnac1o&m=6BmiP2vuNCnSWvmFMxj0GIV1J6H6N1D9hWFuCcVFL7g&s=QXLZAwMpyWiEvCYZdmo-j31CKCEei5rSJSSPYGxHpYE&e=> This is a moment of crisis and New York needs our help as soon as possible. Thank you! P.S. Please share this with anyone in NYS in your networks who you think might be interested in applying and post to your social media accounts! New York State Department of Health www.health.ny.gov<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.health.ny.gov_&d=DwMF-g&c=mRWFL96tuqj9V0Jjj4h40ddo0XsmttALwKjAEOCyUjY&r=-6rlgNRaSNB4h-US8pWUnbOhZvnVvNigj1UFERnac1o&m=6BmiP2vuNCnSWvmFMxj0GIV1J6H6N1D9hWFuCcVFL7g&s=RX9CFHwrnw452vIucDZMS2FVo8ZwVu-l5JWE7EK1RYY&e=>