Area Health Education Centers
Area Health Education Centers (AHECs) are academic and community partnerships that provide health career recruitment programs for K-12 students and increase access to health care in medically underserved areas. AHECs address health care workforce issues by exposing students to health care career opportunities that they otherwise would not have encountered, establishing community-based training sites for students in service-learning and clinical capacities, providing continuing education programs for health care professionals, and evaluating the needs of underserved communities.
Basic/Core Area Health Education Centers
Funds schools of medicine (or nursing in states with no medical school) for the planning, development, operation, and maintenance of health education centers that link the university health science center with local planning and educational and clinical resources. Basic AHECs develop multi-disciplinary, community-based training programs and establish AHEC centers in one or more service areas.
Area Health Education Center directory
Program details (including application guidance) from most recent competition
Model State-Supported Area Health Education Centers
Funds basic AHECs that have received as many of 12 years of funding and established partnerships statewide or across multiple counties to maintain those partnerships and continue to educate students and clinicians while improving access to health care in underserved areas.
Area Health Education Center directory
Program details (including application guidance) from most recent competition
- The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes $500 million for health workforce programs.
- $200 million is directed to scholarships, loans and loan repayment and support for programs that expand and improve health professions training.
- $300 million will enable the National Health Service Corps to double its field strength by September 30, 2010