Reach Out – Strengthening California's Inland Empire

The Health Professions Conference is just a week away, and Reach Out relishes this opportunity each year to expose the high school students who attend from the Southern Inland region to the wide range of health careers that are open to them. This year, on the heels of the first ever Inland Region Public Health report, we're really using the data uncovered about interest and training gaps in the public health field to zero in on speakers who can entice and intrigue students to learn more about the field of public health, which encompasses everything from epidemiology to communications and education. Through this conference, we strive to serve our youth and the Inland population by creating bridges and pathways that keep talent here in the IE and demonstrate to that talent that there is a wide range of fantastic job opportunities close to home. #HealthProfessionsConsortium #ReachOut #PublicHealth

The Inland Empire Health Professions Conference opens up new horizons for youth, showing them a realm of possibilities they might now know exist. Each year about 600 high school students convene on a university campus to attend Reach Out's annual conference. This year, we'll meet at Cal State San Bernardino on February 13th. The day will begin with a keynote from a sports medicine professional, and then kids will attend various sessions based on their interests. Speakers and topics range from mental health professions to public health, community health worker opportunities to technical fields like radtech. Students learn about the wide range of career fields in the healthcare realm, and for many, it's welcome information, confirming that there really are positions for everyone and pathways for any who have the drive. For more information about this years conference, check the comments.

The role of CHWs isn’t just growing—it’s exploding. With job security, competitive wages, and the opportunity to make a real impact, it’s no surprise that CHWs are becoming one of the most in-demand roles in healthcare. But for many in our region, the career path remains under the radar. At Reach Out, we want to change that! #CommunityHealthWorkers #CHW #HealthcareCareers #JobSecurity #CompetitiveWages #MakeAnImpact #InDemandJobs #ReachOut #CareerOpportuniti

🌟Reach Out is proud to introduce the Pacific Empire College🌟 California Governor Gavin Newsom has said that he would like to have 25,000 CHWs working in California. Right now we have 6-7,000 in our state. Reach Out has been training CHWs in California's Inland Empire for five years, but to capitalize on this opportunity both to create fulfilling and well-paid work for community members and to build bridges from the community into the often-confusion and alienating world of healthcare services, we found a way to assist. We created as social enterprise and a part of Reach Out, the Pacific Empire College to offer the CHW program and later more advanced topics to three groups: ✅ community-based organizations ✅ medical institutions, and ✅ the general public. We are also offering the program in Spanish, what we call the "Promotores de Salud" to the general public cohorts. For more information about the Pacific Empire College, see the comments! #PacificEmpireCollege #CHWTraining #CommunityHealthWorkers

The genesis of the Public Health Workforce Report released late last year (see comments for link to the report) was a significant moment in the way we think about overall health in the Inland Empire. The first meeting convened both county departments of public health, their directors and medical directors for both counties, as well as all the universities and schools of public health in our region. It was a significant moment because they've never all been in the same room before to discuss what we need to do to focus on our public health workforce and make sure we have enough people applying for the jobs, and that those applicants have the skills that the public health departments really need for a 21st century public health workforce. To understand this -- our baseline -- we needed data. We agreed that we needed to gather data and then make decisions mindful of what the data tells us about where we need to focus and what areas are really struggling. And also to discern what kinds of programs in our colleges and universities we need to have to make sure the people who are graduating can meet those requirements. And that is how the report was born. #PublicHealth #InlandEmpire #HealthWorkforce

A few weeks ago, we released the first Inland Empire Public Health Workforce report, and one of our posts received a lot of engagement, both from those expressing agreement that public health is an area that needs more focus to fill the increasing workforce shortage and those concerned that there is already plenty of interest but not enough open positions. One of the big needs we see in this realm - at least in our region here in California's Inland Empire - is better alignment between practical public health curriculum and actual market needs, and this is something we have been actively working to help improve through our consortium of public health departments and officials (the leaders who sponsored and created the report). 👉 One of the key findings in the report - which highlighted shortages but also suggested an actionable plan to address these - was the need for a regional Academic Health Department, something that would actively work to align current needs with current training, to ensure those emerging from our public health training programs are equipped with the exact skill sets needed most in the market today. Other efforts Reach Out makes to help create a pipeline to help fill this gap include: work-based learning programs, internships with partners, our annual Health Professions Conference for high school students, training CHWs through our Pacific Empire College, and offering trainings for various health certifications. If these are areas you're interested in, or you'd like to learn more, don't hesitate to reach out! (And find the full report linked in the comments)

In February 2024, Reach Out received approval from the Bureau for Private and Post-Secondary Education to launch Pacific Empire College, a new subsidiary focused on workforce development. The college’s first program trains and certifies Community Health Workers (CHWs), supporting California’s goal of hiring 25,000 CHWs by 2025. The rollout of the college aligns with our 10-year plan to develop social enterprises that contribute to our long-term financial sustainability and growth. Though the college is set for a full launch in early 2025, CHW training programs are already in progress. Want to learn more about Pacific Empire College? Please check the comments! #PacificEmpireCollege #WorkforceDevelopment #CommunityHealthWorkers #CHWTraining

Jurupa Valley: Planning for a Healthy, Thriving Community of Communities — Be Part of the Conversation! Attend one of the community forums to help shape the future of Jurupa Valley. Your voice is vital in building a collaborative action plan with impactful strategies for a healthier, happier community! Please join us for one of two sessions: January 29: 9 - 11 AM OR 5 - 7 PM Save your spot and get more details in the form in the comments! #JurupaValley #CommunityForums #HealthyLiving #ThrivingCommunity #BePartOfTheConversation

A nurse is medically trained. CHWs are not nurses. Instead, they are trained to work with individuals, and are especially skilled at determining the social and medical needs of any client they work with. They can evaluate the ability of clients to communicate with healthcare professionals to achieve the desired healthcare outcomes. CHW relationships are built on trust and longevity of that trust. It is patient-centered care focused on measurable outcomes that will improve the quality of a patient's life and their ability to work within the medical system. Nurses and CHWs are not the same, but they work together to provide optimal patient care that treats the entire patient as an individual. #NurseVsCHW #PatientCenteredCare #CommunityHealthWorkers

Only 1/3 of physicians in California speak Spanish, but in the Inland Empire, more than half the population is Hispanic. This disparity creates an interesting issue with the way healthcare is designed - where each provider is given a specific amount of time to invest in each patient before the per-patient reimbursement runs out. This incentivizes providers to be efficient and to ensure positive outcomes. But when instructions and issues are not understood - costs (in both time and capitation) are introduced. CHWs offer an answer. #HealthcareDisparity #HispanicHealth #InlandEmpire