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Contact: Media Relations Officer, 202-828-0041
For Immediate Release
AAMC'S Project 3000 By 2000 Announces New Grants to Prepare Minorities for Health Professions Careers
Schools and Programs of Public Health Targeted for Half of New Grants
Washington, D.C., February 9, 1999--Continuing to address the need for more minorities in the health professions, the third grant cycle of the Project 3000 by 2000 Health Professions Partnership Initiative (HPPI) offers funding for up to 10 new education partnerships. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has designated five of 10 new grants for partnerships to be led by schools and programs of public health. The other five partnerships may be led by any health professional school, (e.g. medicine, nursing, dentistry, physical therapy...), as in the previous two rounds of funding. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) administers the HPPI, in collaboration with the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH). The HPPI is co-funded by The W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
"The expanded involvement of schools and programs of public health in the HPPI will enhance the work that we began in Project 3000 by 2000 by increasing students' opportunities to learn about this vital field and broadening their career horizons," said AAMC President Jordan J. Cohen, M.D. "The HPPI grants program is the kind of proactive, community-based effort that we need to ensure that tomorrow's health professions workforce will be prepared to meet the needs of our increasingly diverse society."
Alfred Sommer, M.D., M.H.S., ASPH president, added, "The Association of Schools of Public Health's goal is two-fold. First, young people who wish to dedicate their careers to the prevention of disease and injury must benefit from a strong educational footing before they enter graduate school. The pressing public health challenges of tomorrow require this state of readiness from today's educators and students. Second, we must engage young people from all racial and ethnic groups by reaching out to them with solid educational opportunities to prepare for the public health professions. Public health is a global, cross-generational, and multi-ethnic challenge." Dr. Sommer is the dean of the School of Hygiene and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.
The HPPI grants program is based on the AAMC's Project 3000 by 2000, which was launched in 1991 to address the long-standing underrepresentation of blacks, Mexican-Americans, mainland Puerto Ricans and American Indians in medical school. HPPI partnerships coordinate the efforts of two or more health professional schools with those of colleges, predominantly minority high schools, and community-based organizations to enhance the interest and academic preparedness of students as they progress from one stage of the health professions educational "pipeline" to the next.
Each HPPI partnership will undertake several of the following activities:
- establish, or work to enhance, existing high school health professions academies or magnet programs;
- strengthen the pre-professional programs of partner colleges;
- coordinate the educational programs of partner institutions to enable more students to excel academically and advance through "the pipeline";
- actively involve the families of the students, especially of those enrolled in middle and high schools;
- strengthen math and science skills of teachers and students by providing in-service seminars and summer research and employment opportunities;
- improve students' understanding of the range of public and clinical health career options; administer classroom-based after-school and summer enrichment programs; and
- develop internships for students.
The first 10 HPPI grants were awarded in February 1996. Six additional partnerships were funded in July 1998 (a list of grantees is attached). Applications for the third round of funding are due July 30, 1999, with the announcement of grant recipients slated for February 2000. Two workshops will be held for prospective applicants -- March 15 in St. Louis, and March 17 in Arlington, VA.
Round 1 HPPI Grantees (February 1996):
University of Massachusetts Medical Center
University of Connecticut Health Center
University of Louisville Health Science Center
MCP-Hahnemann School of Medicine
University of Nebraska Medical Center
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Oregon Health Sciences University
Medical University of South Carolina
University of Wisconsin Medical School
Medical College of Georgia
Round 2 HPPI Grantees (July 1998):
University of Kansas Medical Center, in collaboration with the University of Missouri at Kansas City
Western Michigan University
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in collaboration with SUNY-Stony Brook
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
University of Michigan
For more information regarding the HPPI call for proposals, please contact Timothy Ready, Ph.D., at 202-828-0584 or via e-mail at <tpready@aamc.org>. Information can also be found via the web at <aamc.org/meded/minority/3x2/start.htm> and <rwjf.org/grant/cfp3by2k.htm>.
The Association of American Medical Colleges represents the 125 accredited U.S. medical schools; the 16 accredited Canadian medical schools; some 400 major teaching hospitals, including 74 Veterans Administration medical centers; 87 academic and professional societies representing 88,000 faculty members; and the nation's 67,000 medical students and 102,000 residents.
Additional information about the AAMC and U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals is available at www.aamc.org/newsroom
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Started in 1991, Project 3000 by 2000 is the Association of American Medical Colleges' (AAMC) national initiative to increase the annual enrollment of blacks, Mexican Americans, mainland Puerto Ricans and American Indians in U.S. medical schools.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It became a national institution in 1972 with receipt of a bequest from the industrialist whose name it bears, and has since made fore than $2.6 billion in grants. The Foundation concentrates its grant making in three goal areas: (1) to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost; (2) to improve the way services are organized and provided to people with chronic health conditions; and (3) to reduce the personal, social, and economic harm caused by substance abuse--tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs.
The goal of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation is to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations.
The Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) is the only national organization representing the deans, faculty and students of the 28 accredited graduate schools of public health. The mission of the ASPH is to improve the public's health by advancing professional and graduate education, research and service in public health. ASPH serves the collective needs of the schools of public health as they pursue the education and training of public health professionals. The schools of public health have a combined faculty of over 2,500 and educate more than 15,000 students annually. The schools constitute the primary source of comprehensively trained public health professionals, which are in short support, to serve the federal government, 50 states, private sector and community-based organizations.
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