Thursday, September 21, 2023
9/21/2023
University of Arizona Health Sciences PO Box 245140 Tucson, AZ 857245140 Francisco A. Moreno Ph. 5206265327 fmoreno@arizona.edu $650,000/year requested; $3,250,000 total Located in HHS Region 9, Arizona is an economically and culturally diverse state that currently faces dramatic health care profession shortages, requiring urgent attention. The University of Arizona Health Sciences (UAHS) has established a robust collaboration with various community partners to create the Arizona Health Opportunities Pathways to Excellence (AZ- HOPE) program to assist individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds in entering and succeeding in allied health and health professions programs. AZ-HOPE leverages these partnerships and diverse resources to successfully deliver established structured and unstructured programs into a Comprehensive Approach to address the activities of the National HCOP Academies Program. The current proposal serves the following populations: Rising High School Junior/Seniors (HS), Adult Non-traditional learners (NTL) including Veterans, Allied Health Professions (AHP) Degree Students, Undergraduate (UG) students, and Health Professions (HP) Students-including post-baccalaureate students. Impact is maximized through the implementation of AZ-HOPE Ambassadors, which since 2018, formalizes continuous longitudinal support to assist the success of students from disadvantaged backgrounds as they progress from high school towards allied health and/or health professional degrees. Ambassadors benefit from ongoing academic advising, culturally tailored social support, mental wellness and self-care, mentoring, financial counseling, and financial assistance in the form of stipends and scholarships, and advocacy through dedicated case management. Twenty-five participants are competitively selected into the AZ-HOPE Ambassadors program each year. They are encouraged to participate, and given preference for selection, in the following structured programs serving learners from disadvantaged backgrounds: Med-Start (6-week residential health career exploration and college preparation program for HS); BRIDGE (summer transition program for new students at UA); BLAISER/FRONTERA (10-week paid summer mentored research internship, health career preparation, and pre-admissions support for UG); and Pathways Scholars Program/Pre-medicine Admissions Pathway (yearlong post-baccalaureate educational-enrichment, professional-socialization, and life-management programs, with conditional-admission to the UA Colleges of Medicine in Phoenix and Tucson, respectively). Specific outcomes for AZ-HOPE Academies participants include: 1) high school graduation (95% rate), and matriculation into a 2- or 4-year college/university (90%); 2) graduation from a 2-year or 4-year college/university (80%); and 3) matriculation into graduate-level health professions programs (50%), conditional admission for 90% of post-baccalaureate program participants, retention and completion of a graduate-level health professions or allied health professions program (80%). AZ-HOPE partners with the regional Arizona Area Health Education Center partners to support HS health-related educational activities; community colleges (CC) to support AHP students through program completion and transfer to 4-year HP programs; UG partners to support new and transfer students, including NTL and veterans; and post-baccalaureate programs to facilitate conditional admissions. Colleges of Allopathic and Osteopathic Medicine, Public Health, and Pharmacy will collaborate with AZ-HOPE to provide support to AZ-HOPE Ambassadors and participants in all structured and unstructured opportunities, facilitating their program completion, and exposure to rural and disadvantaged clinical communities. Evaluation of AZ-HOPE’s collaborative effort will yield insights into the impact of longitudinal support in the success of students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
