Strategy
The Ecosystem’s strategic plan includes six key project areas:
Convening
Community Partnerships
Ecosystem Internship
Connecting Resources
Program Evaluations
Consulting
Convening
We aim to connect and convene with community to help elevate marginalized voices and advocate for more equitable health care policy throughout Washington state.
In 2023, the Ecosystem launched it’s first series of gatherings for community partners in education, healthcare, and workforce to align, advocate, and partner.
-
Our goal for our Fall Convening was to reconnect with partners, both new and old, and discuss opportunities and best practices related to health career pathways. More specifically, we welcomed David Garcia, Associate Dean for Community, Health Equity, and Belonging at Washington State University, with his presentation "Each One, Teach One - An ecosystem approach to preparing future health care leaders in Washington and beyond."
40 Virtual Attendees
-
Our goal for the 2023 Community Summer Convening was to reconnect with partners, both new and old, and to reintroduce ourselves to our community.
23 Virtual Attendees
-
We met with leaders in the Spokane region to learn about work being done within the Community Colleges of Spokane and the Native American Health Sciences Programs.
Ecosystem 2023 Community Summer Convening
Ecosystem Internship
As a foundational part of our mission to center students and young leaders in our work, we began this internship to help to elevate student voices.
Strategy Interns with the Ecosystem serve to support and develop organizational strategies and initiatives in coordination with the Ecosystem staff and organization partners. In addition, Strategy Interns receive 1:1 support to create personal development goals and a plan to develop these skills during their internship and beyond.
-
In the Fall of 2020, core Ecosystem leaders coincided to obtain and leverage funds for strategy interns who worked on and led early programmatic and organizational development efforts for the group. The first strategy consultants were funded by the WPMG HCCP program and served as student representatives on the interim board of directors.
With the support of the Kaiser Permanente Community Health Benefit grant and the Career Connect Washington grant, the Ecosystem was able to launch its first formal strategy intern cohort in February of 2023.
Team meeting with Ecosystem Strategy Interns
Consulting
We aim to develop agreements with community organizations/institutions to support a focus on equitable policies, practices, and activities centered on BIPOC communities.
In September 2023, the Ecosystem entered into its first official consulting agreement with WorkForce Central of Pierce County. The objective of this partnership is to provide consultation services related to equity and anti-racism in healthcare pathways and workforce investments. Over the next year, we plan to engage with existing and newly aligned Black, Brown, and Indigenous stakeholders to provide recommendations on public policy and advocacy efforts that can lead to meaningful advancement in racial equity within the healthcare workforce.
If your organization is interested in learning more about opportunities for consulting, please feel free to contact our team at admin@health-ecosystem.org.
Program Evaluations
Partnering with healthcare pathway programs to evaluate efficacy using a racial equity lens.
In 2020, our members collaborated to match available resources with the needs of students, and this became even more important during the pandemic. As a result, we worked together to create a series of virtual programs hosted by the Healthcare Career Pathway project (HCCP) within the Washington Permanente Medical Group (WPMG). These programs offered group mentoring to pre-health students across the state. Currently, the Ecosystem is conducting an evaluation of the program to determine its outcomes and aims to provide recommendations for enhancing the program.
Virtual Rounds Program 2021 - HCCP
Our strategies.
