The Opportunity Youth Demonstration Project is helping inform how California can create more connected and equitable pathways into health care careers for young adults facing barriers to education and employment. On Sept. 29, UNITE-LA brought together education, workforce, health care and policy leaders from across the state to share lessons from three local demonstration projects and explore how promising approaches can be strengthened and scaled to support economic mobility while meeting California’s growing health care workforce needs.

The statewide webinar highlighted findings from the demonstration projects, including UNITE-LA’s My Pathway to Health initiative, which focused on improving access to community health worker and medical assistant pathways. Across the projects, partners identified common challenges—including fragmented systems, financial barriers and gaps in support during key transitions—as well as promising practices such as stronger cross-sector collaboration, work-based learning, supportive services and approaches centered on the needs of opportunity youth. A panel of state and regional leaders also explored how policy alignment, sustainable funding, data sharing and partnership development can help move these local lessons toward broader systems change.

UNITE-LA will continue working with partners to elevate lessons from the demonstration project and advance strategies that strengthen health care pathways for opportunity youth. By connecting local implementation with statewide policy and systems conversations, this work can help create more accessible pathways into family-sustaining health care careers while strengthening California’s health care talent pipeline.

For more information, please reach out to Amber Chatman, Senior Director of Workforce Systems and Policy, at [email protected].