Areas of Focus / Workforce Pipelines

Workforce Pipelines

The growing shortage of healthcare workers in California, particularly in regions like South LA, continues to restrict access to and quality of care. Even with increased California and national attention to this urgent issue there are blind spots in current strategies. CHC has identified key upstream areas to intervene in the system to create a lasting impact. In recent years, CHC has focused on:

The impact that Community Health Workers have had and will continue to have ensuring vulnerable communities can navigate and benefit from the healthcare system

Working collaboratively with clinics and schools to explore education, policy, funding and other opportunities to strengthen the youth of color healthcare workforce pipeline.

Understanding that the skills needed to diagnose and build more equitable systems requires a multi-prong approach, CHC is committed to building a public health policy pipeline that offers this workforce exposure to community-based policy and research evidence, and learns to develop a more acute understanding of the systems and processes that impact a community’s wellbeing.

Projects

Healthcare Advocates –
Youth of Color Pipeline:

A demonstration project piloting health system-focused internships for South LA high school youth at community clinics. Started in 2017 and is currently focused on exploring sustainable models to support youth of color in building skills and increasing their knowledge about opportunities and pathways into community healthcare careers. For more information

Retitle to Policy and Research Internships:

CHC hosts interns from local high schools, colleges and universities to develop a pipeline of professionals interested in and knowledgeable of community centered public policy that addresses social determinants of health, and a lens of policy with social justice and community-values. Some of our academic partnerships include USC, UCLA, LA Promise, Charles Drew University, among others. To learn more contact Rebecca Ratzkin, Director of Research at rratzkin@risingcommunities.org.

Research

(Past, present and ongoing)

Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA)

An overview of HPSA criteria and definitions, and implications of changes to criteria at that time.

Understanding Community Health Workers (CHW)

This report provides an overview of the role CHW’s play in the healthcare system, highlights evidence-based research and expert opinions, explores the limitations and barriers and identifies a set of recommendations to sustain and uplift the CHW workforce.

Youth Healthcare Pipeline Project Evaluation

Summary evaluation report of the initial 2017 healthcare youth of color pipeline project, summarizing evaluation results.

Additional Articles

Check out some of our latest articles on workforce activities and policies!

Towards the Future

We continue to explore and support pipeline programs for youth of color within the healthcare and policy fields. Our workforce initiatives focus on building out our own internship programs, deepening relationships with educational institutions, and partnering with healthcare providers and networks to find sustainable and systemic responses to our healthcare workforce shortage. If interested in partnering with CHC please contact us.

This work is funded in part by Unihealth, Kaiser Permanente, and individual donors like you.