Diversity Hub

Our mission is to provide access to quality health care for underserved people of California. This is accomplished by linking academic training programs with training sites in urban and rural underserved areas of the state such as community clinics and health centers, hospitals and other community based sites. The California AHEC has 13 centers, each responsible for a geographic service area in an urban or rural part of the state. Each center develops its own programs based on the needs of their service area and include continuing education for health professionals and staff working in underserved communities; rotations and other community experiences for health professions students and residents and youth health careers programs for underrepresented minority and other disadvantaged K-14 students. Each of these programs seeks to train future HPs, recruit and retain health professionals for community clinics and health centers and other types of sites that provide medical/dental and behavioral health services to the underserved populations of CA.

The UC Davis - UC Merced San Joaquin Valley Program in Medical Education (SJV PRIME) is an innovative approach to training future physicians, a pathway that will emphasize quality of care anchored in community-based research and educational experiences. The diversity of the San Joaquin Valley, including health systems, diverse patient populations and broad community partnerships, is a core component of the effort to improve the health and health care of the region. The SJV PRIME program is a collaboration between the UC Davis School of Medicine, UC Merced and UCSF Fresno, to train the next generation of San Joaquin Valley physicians. It seeks to increase the diversity of the medical profession and remedy the uneven distribution of physicians in California. SJV PRIME is a tailored clinical track at the UC Davis School of Medicine for medical students who are committed to ensuring high quality, diverse and well distributed medical care to improve health for populations, communities, and individuals in California's San Joaquin Valley.

A collaboration among faculty, residents, students, and volunteers, UCSF's Community Dental Clinic has been working to improve the health of San Francisco's homeless population for the past decade. The philosophy of the Community Dental Clinic is to motivate patients to seek healthcare and to prevent dental disease through education and preventive dentistry. CDC is guided by three mutually supportive sets of aspirations: (1) For the clients- to provide oral health education and treatment. To achieve a positive impact on the lives of our patients; (2) For the students- to create a setting in which students can learn, teach, and practice clinical skills while cultivating sensitivity and comfort in interactions with the underserved population; and (3) For the Community- To use the Dental Clinic as a forum for education and health care service. To promote advocacy for the needs of the homeless population. Ultimately, we hope this experience will broaden our vision and make us more able and compassionate health care providers for any population we choose to serve.