REPORT/RECOMMENDATION TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
AND RECORD OF ACTION
January 9, 2024
FROM
JOSHUA DUGAS, Director, Department of Public Health
SUBJECT
Title
Memorandum of Understanding with San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools for Public Health Workforce Development
End
RECOMMENDATION(S)
Recommendation
Approve Memorandum of Understanding with San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools to provide support for workforce development to garner the next generation of healthcare workers through focused training, mentorship, and experiential learning in the amount of $800,000, effective retroactively from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024.
(Presenter: Joshua Dugas, Director, 387-9146)
Body
COUNTY AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER GOALS & OBJECTIVES
Provide for the Safety, Health and Social Service Needs of County Residents.
Pursue County Goals and Objectives by Working with Other Agencies and Stakeholders.
Focus on Recovery and Resiliency Following Major Emergency Responses such as the December 2, 2015 Terrorist Attack (SB Strong) and the Global COVID-19 Pandemic.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
This item does not impact Discretionary General Funding (Net County Cost). Payments made by the Department of Public Health (DPH) to San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools (SBCSS) under the recommended Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is not to exceed $800,000 and is funded by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) ‘s COVID-19 Public Health Crisis Response and the Public Health Workforce Development Supplemental funding grant through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021. Adequate appropriation and revenue are included in DPH’s 2023-24 budget.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
DPH received an announcement from CDPH stating that the State of California received $64,000,000 through ARPA of 2021 to support jurisdictional COVID-19 efforts. The COVID-19 Public Health Crisis Response and Public Health Workforce Development Supplemental funding is meant to establish, expand, train, and sustain the State and Territorial Health Departments public health workforce to support jurisdictional COVID-19 prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery initiatives, including school-based health programs. CDPH allocated the $64,000,000 to local health jurisdictions via a funding formula ($450,000 Base + Population of San Bernardino County), and based on this formula, San Bernardino County was allocated $3,204,849 for a funding period between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2024.
DPH is recommending approval of a MOU with SBCSS to meet the workforce development objectives of the CDPH grant funding by providing enhanced support to garner interest in healthcare to young students. In November 2023, DPH staff began internal discussions and reached out to personnel from SBCSS to collaborate and meet workforce development objectives. Through this collaborative engagement, a work plan was developed that focused on building the next generation of healthcare workers through focused training, mentorship, and experimental learning. The work plan included hosting a clinical shadowing program, young healthcare professional camp, community health worker class, cardiopulmonary resuscitation class, suicide prevention training, and a Medical Leaders of Tomorrow mentoring program.
SBCSS has been collaborating with the Lewis-San Antonio Healthy Communities Institute (HCl) at San Antonio Regional Hospital to identify opportunities and solutions to build the next generation of healthcare workers in the Inland Empire and improve the health of surrounding communities. Workforce development is central to HCl’s mission of nurturing skilled healthcare professionals. Workforce development programs were launched as an initiative to bridge the gap between classroom learning, early career exploration and real-world medical experience to young students. High school students are given the opportunity to learn directly from health care experts. The main objective of the program is to give high school students an intimate exposure to science and medicine from health care professionals to inspire the path into healthcare. DPH will collaborate with SBCSS to support the provision of these programs.
This item is being presented at this time as this is the first date available following the required operational, fiscal, legal reviews, and awaiting approval of SBCSS. The retroactive effective date of July 1, 2023, allows SBCSS to submit for reimbursement of funds in support of workforce development programs to the beginning of the fiscal year, ensuring that these grant funds are fully expended by the grant end date of June 30, 2024.
PROCUREMENT
Not applicable.
REVIEW BY OTHERS
This item has been reviewed by County Counsel (Adam Ebright, Deputy County Counsel, 387-5455) on December 8, 2023; Risk Management (Victor Tordesillas, Director, 386-8623) on December 8, 2023; Finance (Iliana Rodriguez, Administrative Analyst, 387-4205) on December 18, 2023; and County Finance and Administration (Robert Saldana, Deputy Executive Officer, 387-5423) on December 19, 2023.