Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee: Healthcare Career Workforce Access for Youth (HCWAY)

Project Summary:

Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee (BGCGM) seeks to address health workforce disparities in the City of Milwaukee by reimagining our BCGGM Workforce Development—Healthcare program track. We will accomplish this by:

1. engaging our MCW academic partner to evaluate ways in which BGCGM can better serve youth with targeted, high-demand certification programs aligned with the needs of local healthcare organizations
2. using our evaluation results to redevelop our program space with relevant state-certified training labs after catastrophic flooding interrupted operations in August 2024, and
3. empowering 150 local teenagers to attain gateway certifications necessary to gain meaningful employment within the healthcare sector.

Milwaukee faces significant challenges to health equity, particularly among socio-economic lines. Our approach addresses two substantial needs within the community:

1. Wisconsin healthcare organizations face a critical shortage of entry-level positions, including CNA, Surgical Tech, CMA, and others, with vacancy rates approaching or exceeding 10%; and
2. Our service population, largely consisting of underserved populations with low- or moderate-incomes, is severely underrepresented among healthcare professions.

Increased representation within the healthcare workforce is important to promote health equity for care outcomes, patient experience, medical research, and healthcare professionals. Throughout this project, BGCGM will redefine and expand its scope of Workforce Development—Healthcare services to better meet the needs of both students and local community health organizations.