Health & Medicine is excited to announce that it is a subrecipient to the EDA’s Good Jobs Challenge (GJC) Grant, led by the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership (the Partnership) and World Business Chicago. This grant will support an employer-led, community-driven initiative to promote economic resiliency and growth for Chicago and Cook County. The focus of GJC is to create durable and resilient career pathways into intermediate and mid-level jobs in Chicago’s recovery task force sectors, including public health and healthcare. The funds will provide capacity building support for the Public Health Workforce Collaborative and the Chicagoland Healthcare Workforce Collaborative, led by Health & Medicine Policy Research Group, as well as direct funding for pathway programs. Read press releases from the EDA, The Partnership, and Governor Pritzker for more information.

As a Backbone Organization to this grant, we will support the sector strategy, project design and implementation of programming pertinent to the healthcare industry. Our decades of leadership promoting the development of workforce policies and strengthening the health careers pipeline through the Area Health Education Center (a HRSA/HHS funded equity focused workforce development program) have made us one of Illinois’s leading health workforce research and policy organizations. As the umbrella entity of two existing sector partnerships—the Public Health Workforce Collaborative (PHWC) and the Chicagoland Healthcare Workforce Collaborative (CHWC)—Health & Medicine has proven our commitment to building an inclusive healthcare workforce through human-centered research, the elevation of equitable workforce policies, and the promotion of career pipelines that lead to sustainable careers with thrivable wages.

The Public Health Workforce Collaborative was launched in 2020 and currently includes over 25 of Chicago’s leading public health employers as part of its membership. Originally established to help employers identify common workforce challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, the PHWC currently coordinates policy and advocacy efforts, research, and pathways planning that promotes building equity and diversity within the region’s public health workforce.

The CHWC was launched in 2016 and currently includes 12 of Chicago’s major health and hospital systems and more than a dozen strategic partners including training providers and community organizations. Together, they focus on building a more inclusive healthcare workforce by building pipelines for unemployed and underemployed populations, increasing the accessibility of training programs, and strengthening career pathways that lead to family-wealth-building jobs.
Together, they focus on building a more inclusive healthcare workforce by building pipelines for unemployed and underemployed populations, increasing the accessibility of training programs, and strengthening career pathways that lead to family-wealth-building jobs.