Bringing Life-Saving Skills to the Mississippi Delta: Another ACLS Academy’s Training Mission
In early March, two team members from ACLS Academy traveled to the Mississippi Delta—a region often overlooked in healthcare access conversations but deeply in need of support. This recent trip marked a return to the area, where ACLS Academy has been building relationships, strengthening community capacity, and sharing life-saving knowledge since 2019.
This time, their mission was not just to recertify local staff in CPR, AED use, and First Aid, but to take the next step toward sustainable, community-based health education.
A Region in Need of Resources
In many parts of the Mississippi Delta, the average ambulance response time can stretch between 45 minutes to an hour, and it’s another 45 minutes to the nearest hospital. It’s a sobering reality for a community where residents face transportation barriers and limited access to preventive care.
Partners in Development (PID), a Massachusetts-based nonprofit, has worked in the Delta for years, addressing these gaps through education, housing, small business support, and health initiatives. When ACLS Academy partnered with PID before the pandemic to deliver their first HeartSaver certifications, the goal was simple: empower those already working in the community to respond during medical emergencies.
Now, with certifications lapsed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was time to return—and go even further.
Hands-On Training, Real-World Relevance
During the four-day trip, ACLS Academy Instructors, Shelley Lynch, who is also the Founder of ACLS Academy, and Jenna Kennally, RN and Critical Care Nurse at Boston Children’s Hospital, completed HeartSaver training courses, which included adult, child, and infant CPR, AED use, and comprehensive First Aid training. The four training participants, who work in PID’s local programming as tutors, field director, transportation staff, and the culinary arts director, were already embedded in the community, working daily with youth in after-school programs.
The training sessions went beyond textbook basics. They covered severe allergic reactions and how to use an EpiPen, asthma emergencies and inhaler use, bleeding control and splinting, and even how to respond to local hazards like poisonous snake or spider bites.
“Their role as frontline caregivers—both formally and informally—makes them the ideal people to have this kind of training,” explained Jenna Kennally. “They’re with the kids every day, and in a place with long delays in emergency response, their knowledge can save lives.”
From Certification to Community Empowerment
This wasn’t just a one-off training event. The ACLS Academy team is planting the seeds for long-term impact. One of the participants was identified as a potential instructor, and the Academy plans to return this summer to help him become certified to teach others.
“We’re really taking a public health, upstream approach,” Jenna noted. “By training someone in the community to be an instructor, he can generate income while helping build a sustainable model for health education. We want this to keep going long after we leave.”
The hope is that this local instructor can bring life-saving training into schools, daycares, and community centers throughout the Delta. It’s the ripple effect in action—train one person, and the whole community benefits.
Laying the Groundwork for a Community Health Worker Program
Beyond CPR and First Aid, ACLS Academy and PID are exploring even deeper support systems: a Community Health Worker (CHW) program. These workers—trusted members of their own communities—serve as liaisons between residents and healthcare providers. In the Delta, where people often share the same nurse practitioner, a CHW would play a crucial role in:
Improving communication: Facilitating effective communication between patients, primary care physicians, and other healthcare providers.
Enhancing patient adherence: Ensuring patients understand and adhere to their medication regimens and treatment plans.
Connecting to resources: Linking individuals and families to essential resources, such as food assistance and transportation.
Early intervention: Identifying high-risk individuals and ensuring they receive timely medical attention.
“CHWs are used in low-resource countries and have been shown to decrease morbidity and mortality,” Jenna said. “We use them here in Massachusetts on a smaller scale, but in places like the Delta, the impact could be massive.”
ACLS Academy is now working with local providers and PID to identify one or two potential CHWs and explore funding for a paid position. Whether it’s with paper charts or digital records, the goal is to establish a system for regular, meaningful outreach to high-risk patients.
A Shared Mission, A Growing Partnership
Jenna and Shelly have been collaborating with Partners in Development since 2018. Their work began with a trip to Haiti and expanded to the Mississippi Delta as they recognized similar challenges in access and infrastructure right here in the U.S.
Together, they’ve made several trips to the region and are committed to seeing it through—not just through one-time trainings, but through mentorship, partnership, and the development of sustainable programs.
“Each time we return, it’s not just about re-certifying people—it’s about deepening trust, identifying leaders, and connecting people to the resources they need,” Jenna shared.
Join the Effort
The need in the Mississippi Delta is real, and the impact of even one certified responder or one well-trained community health worker is immense. If you’d like to support this work, collaborate, or learn more, you can reach out to ACLS Academy or visit Partners in Development to get involved.
This initiative reminds us that life-saving education isn’t just for hospitals or big cities. Sometimes, it’s in a rural after-school program, in a van driven by a transportation director, or in the hands of a tutor who knows exactly what to do when a child can’t breathe.
And that kind of knowledge? It changes everything.
ACLS Academy is an authorized American Heart Association (AHA) Aligned Training Center. We have three convenient locations in Massachusetts—Quincy, Bridgewater, and Newton Center—and most of our classes include an online training component. We provide high-quality courses taught by instructors practicing in the medical profession for ACLS, BLS, TNCC, ENPC, NRP, PALS, PALS Plus, PEARS, ACLS-EP, ASLS, Bloodborne Pathogen, HeartSaver CPR/AED, First Aid, and Instructor Courses.
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