Community Clinic Consortium is home to the East Bay Area Health Education Center (AHEC), a member of the California AHEC program. The mission of an AHEC is to enhance access to quality health care, particularly primary and preventive care, by improving the supply and distribution of healthcare professionals though community/academic educational partnerships.

Mission Statement

To improve access to and the quality of health care for medically underserved populations of California using academic-community partnerships for health professions training.

Core Values of the California AHEC Program

Health:                 A Skilled, well-distributed health workforce will improve the health of Californians

Education:           Education improves individuals and communities

Community:       Underserved communities have strengths and needs

Diversity:             California’s diversity should be reflected in its health workforce

Collaboration:    Collaboration of communities and academic institutions is essential to workforce improvement and distribution

Innovation:         New ideas contribute to success

About the California Statewide AHEC

The California AHEC Program, a forty year old organization of partnerships, brings together community and academic interests to improve access to health care and decrease health disparities for all Californians. AHEC develops, with its partners, a population-based approach to health professions education with a special emphasis on community-based training. Supported by a HRSA grant and the state of California, the AHEC Program accomplishes its mission through a network of fifteen AHEC centers, each located in an underserved area and affiliated with, but separate from a health professions school. All of the AHEC centers are independent community organizations; each governed by an advisory board and strategically located throughout the state. Because of the emphasis on community-based training, the California AHEC is closely affiliated with community health centers with eleven of the fifteen AHEC centers sponsored by community clinic consortia or large clinic systems.

Each AHEC center is located in an underserved area and are affiliated with, but separate from, one or more health professions school. Each has a support relationship with one or more local family medicine residency programs. AHECs are independent organizations guided by a board of directors which includes healthcare providers, educators and consumers in the service area. AHECs are entrepreneurial in service of their missions; they develop programs and resources in addition to AHEC programs and support.

For more information, visit http://www.cal-ahec.org/

**UPDATE**

President Obama’s proposed FY13 Federal Budget eliminates funding to the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program (Title VII of the Public Health Service Act). This action eliminates a network that has been expanding for 40 years.  The AHEC Program is an established and effective national primary care training network built on committed partnerships of 53 medical schools and academic centers, 253 AHEC centers within 48 states and tens of thousands of community practitioners affiliated with the AHEC’s national clinical training network.

CLICK HERE to download the National AHEC Organization (NAO) talking points (requires Adobe Reader)

Community Clinic Consortium serves as a National Health Service Corp (NHSC) Ambassador site. Please contact if you are interested in learning more about the NHSC.