​Here’s a look at fall health tips to share with your team, including some not-often-thought-about ideas to stay well: 

1. Moisturize Skin Before It Gets Too Dry
Fall is when the humidity levels dip a bit and central heat gets turned on for the first time all year. As a result, the skin’s natural moisture gets sucked out, which can cause cracks and bleeding. After showering and throughout the day, be sure to moisturize with lotion to prevent skin issues like infections due to cracking.

It’s exciting to read that so many Maine high school graduates are taking the opportunity to attend community college for free this fall thanks to a new program approved by the state earlier this year. As a result, enrollment in Maine Community Colleges is up 12 percent. That’s great news for the colleges, for the students, and for their future employers – like mine.

Here at Northern Light Health, we recognize the importance of growth and development for our current, new, and future employees. We want to demonstrate to each of them that we are prepared to live our values and meet or exceed our commitments to our patients and communities.

Maine students, educators, and employers have much to look forward to as we approach the start of the school year. This is the third school year since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic — an experience that has reinforced the need to strengthen key infrastructures in Maine, including in education and Maine’s workforce.

Several important, recently-created education and workforce training opportunities hold great promise for Maine people and employers. Combined, their impact has the potential to significantly boost Maine’s workforce — and the success and well-being of Maine people and the state — in many of the targeted ways that state policymakers and the education and business communities have been championing for some time.

​For those readers of this column who also are subscribers to our chamber’s weekly e-newsletter, this topic should not be a surprise. Rarely do I cross-pollinate with the same information on both platforms, but honestly, these Thrive Maine grants are just that important, and I don’t think enough businesses know about them.

There are two opportunities for Maine businesses and nonprofits to get a portion of $58 million in COVID-relief funds as forgivable loans, and the first application is coming up in September. I encourage you to share this story with business owners you know so they’re aware these funds are out there. I know for important info like this I’d rather have three people send it to me, rather than three people assuming I saw it or that someone else sent it.

​“It’s exciting to read that so many Maine high school graduates are taking the opportunity to attend community college for free this fall thanks to a new program approved by the state earlier this year. As a result, enrollment in Maine Community Colleges is up 12 percent. That’s great news for the colleges, for the students, and for their future employers – like mine.

Here at Northern Light Health, we recognize the importance of growth and development for our current, new, and future employees. We want to demonstrate to each of them that we are prepared to live our values and meet or exceed our commitments to our patients and communities.

Building a larger, stronger workforce has been a longtime priority to ensure Maine’s economic success. It has never been more important than today, as we face a tightening labor pool.

Innovation needs to take center stage in directing the jobs of the future. While many job training and career pathways exist, it is exciting that additional opportunities are emerging, like the one at the University of Maine at Farmington (“UMF launches college credit program for high school students,” Aug. 22).