RCHN Community Health Foundation Awards $1 Million to Community Health Care Association of New York State

NEW YORK, May 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The RCHN Community Health Foundation (RCHN CHF) has announced a gift of $1 million to the Community Health Care Association of New York State (CHCANYS), to support the creation of a Community Health Center Workforce Institute to meet the current and emerging needs of New York's community health centers.  The workforce institute will deliver services, tools, technical assistance, and programs to address high-priority workforce issues.

A champion of community-centered primary care in New York State for 50 years, CHCANYS provides training and technical assistance to support excellence in primary care delivery at more than 70 federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) operating 800 health center locations statewide. CHCANYS  will develop services and programs aimed at increasing and strengthening recruitment and retention efforts and  enhancing community health center capacity. 

"Recruiting and retaining high quality primary care providers has always been difficult, and the pandemic has made it even harder," explained CHCANYS President and CEO Rose Duhan. "The CHCANYS Workforce Institute is intended to help the state's community health centers attract and retain the clinical and non-clinical personnel who are the backbone of their services and operations. Our work will build on RCHN CHF's commitment to developing models and tools that advance health centers in New York State and around the country."

The Workforce Institute will focus on developing and fostering a healthcare workforce pipeline, supporting the workforce by addressing burnout and increasing employee satisfaction and engagement to improve staff retention, and enhancing the knowledge, skills, processes and systems needed to support health center operations. The Community Health Center Workforce Institute will deepen CHCANYS workforce development services and broaden the array of services currently offered, which also include programs addressing clinical quality improvement, emergency management, data and technology, compliance and operations.

The gift is one of three major awards being made by the New York City based private Foundation, which is sunsetting after 15 years of operations. "The Foundation has had a robust voice through our policy research, grant-making and investment in on-the-ground initiatives aimed at improving health and health care," Feygele Jacobs, RCHN CHF's President and CEO, said. "We've had the remarkable privilege to do this work, and our gift to CHCANYS, along with our other awards,  will underscore our legacy and build on our investments locally and nationally at a crucial time for community health."

Media Contact: Susan Lamontagne at 917 568-0969 or Tiffany Portzer at [email protected], 518 526-5261

SOURCE RCHN CHF