Strengthen local public health capacity critical to build healthier communities

BCHC shared recommendations with the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on how to strengthen the public health workforce including:

• federal funding to support the workforce must be sustained and predictable;
• enumerate the public health workforce to better plan for and address shortages;
• efforts should build, support, and maintain the existing workforce;
• incentivize students to enter the public health field;
• leverage existing infrastructure at health departments and across workforce programs, and
• diversify the workforce to reflect the community.