Southwest Washington Area Health Education Center

In 2022, the Washington Association for Community Health received a HRSA grant to become the Southwest Washington Area Health Education Center (AHEC), the state's fourth regional AHEC **Washington State AHEC Mission & Vision** Mission: The four Area Health Education Centers work with the [national AHEC movement](https://www.nationalahec.org/) to support healthcare delivery systems and access to care through activities that strengthen the healthcare workforce in rural and urban-underserved communities. Vision: The Area Health Education Centers in Washington State are innovative centers, providing leadership engaged with diverse rural and urban-underserved communities to ensure access to quality healthcare and health workforce education. AHEC across Washington: Our state has 4 regional AHECs. They are: [Eastern Washington AHEC](https://inside.ewu.edu/ewahec/), [AHEC Western Washington](https://www.ahecww.org/), [Central Washington AHEC](https://cwahec.org/), and our Southwest Washington AHEC. Visit the state's [AHEC website](https://depts.washington.edu/ahec/) to learn more. **Southwest Washington AHEC** - Career Pipeline: Career Pipeline events are geared toward 9th - 12th grade high school students including career fairs, immersion opportunities, career planning, and educational support for students seeking to entrance into healthcare professions. - [Rural Underserved Opportunities Program (RUOP)](https://education.uwmedicine.org/somrural):?The RUOP program is a four-week elective immersion experience in community medicine for students between their first and second year of medical school. This experience focuses on rural and underserved communities and allows for students to gain first-hand experience in a healthcare setting. - [AHEC Scholars](https://ahecwa.org/new-scholars-page/):?This two-year, national certificate program prepares and supports a diverse, skilled primary care workforce in rural and high barrier communities. The AHEC Scholars opportunity provides students with an interprofessional healthcare experience for students in a degree/certificate program with opportunities for expanded clinical training, experiential projects or service learning. - Continuing Education (CE): Continuing Education trainings through SW WA AHEC will focus on high quality professional development covering a wide range of healthcare topics as requested by the local healthcare community. These trainings will seek to assist professionals with increasing competency and maintaining licensure.