2003 Community Partnership Awards

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Community-Based Research on Jobs in Health Care

Abstract:

Low-income communities of color in Los Angeles County face a double crisis: a lack of access to quality jobs with family-supporting wages, health benefits and career-advancement opportunities as well as limited or no access to quality, affordable health care. Furthermore, a shortage of health workers in Los Angeles is contributing to the deteriorating quality of and access to care, especially for low-income residents.

CIPHER is conducting a community-based research project on Los Angeles' health care staffing shortage that links UCLA resources with the economic and workforce development needs of Los Angeles' low-income communities. The project is designed to explore opportunities and strategies for employing disadvantaged job seekers in the health care industry to address both the community need for quality jobs and health care and employers' needs for qualified health care workers.

The goals of CIPHER's project "Community-Based Research on Jobs in Health Care" are to:

1. Identify staffing and training needs and hiring practices of Los Angeles' health care employers.
2. Identify employers' willingness and incentives for investing in solutions.
3. Define a set of community-based policy recommendations to link employers' staffing and training needs to employment and training needs of Los Angeles' low-income communities of color.