Current unemployment levels in California (12.2%), and specifically in the Los Angeles, Long Beach metropolitan area (12.3%) are alarmingly high, surpassing the 8.8% unemployment rate for the US overall (US Department of Labor Statistics, 2011). Latinos (48% of the LA County population) and African Americans have been hit particularly hard by the economic downturn (US Census Bureau, 2008). One sector, health care services, has held up relatively well with sustained job growth nationwide. But the lack of adequate diversity in the health care workforce has become a leading issue in efforts to address the widening ethnic/racial disparities in health and well-being among racial and ethnic minority populations. Appropriate work force development training and education of community workers, junior scholars and undergraduate students can play a pivotal role in addressing these problems. The innovative goal of the Center's Research Education and Training Core is to increase the health disparity research workforce by building skills and forging research partnerships in university and community sites addressing health disparities. The Center will actively recruit the most promising candidates into these programs, evaluate program effectiveness, and implement any necessary improvements to maximize success in training of the next generation of health disparities researchers, clinicians and policy makers. Because health disparities research is inherently multidisciplinary and community-focused, our programs emphasize the principles of team science and community based, community informed and community driven research. This core, like the Center itself, builds on the progress of its predecessor center, the UCLA Center for Research, Education, Training and Strategic Communication on Minority Health Disparities. Our overarching goal is to help achieve the Center's mission;eliminate health disparities in our diverse Los Angeles community and across the nation.
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