Healthy Rural Oregon

Healthy Rural Oregon serves to build a sustainable, home-grown public health and health care workforce by establishing accessible training, engagement, and employment opportunities for community health workers, peer support specialists, doulas, EMTs, paramedics, and more to strengthen the ability of service providers to meet the needs and improve the health of rural Oregonians.

Healthy Rural Oregon (HRO) is a partnership between the Oregon Office of Rural Health, the Oregon Coalition of Local Health Officials, and a statewide network of local partners.

If you have any questions about the project, contact the HRO Project and Data Manager, Madison Riethman at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

HRO Network Partners

This map displays both official HRO network partner organizations, as well as other groups working with the network to advance HRO goals.

The HRO network includes statewide representation from public health departments, health care facilities, community-based organizations (CBOs), coordinated care organizations (CCOs), professional associations, educational institutions, and more in counties and census tracts that meet the HRSA rural or frontier designation. In addition, the network’s efforts engage groups beyond official partners to improve educational offerings and workforce strength, which benefits rural communities in the region beyond the direct network service area.

Announcements

Want to stay up to date on the Healthy Rural Oregon project? Email Madison Riethman (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)) to be added to the distribution list for our monthly newsletter and quarterly partner meetings!

As the Healthy Rural Oregon program faces the end of our federal funding in July 2025, scholarship opportunities are limited; requests for financial support will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. To be intentional and strategic with our limited remaining grant funds, we are prioritizing those who are from or engage with underserved communities (racial, geographic, linguistic, cultural, or socioeconomic). To discuss further, please contact Janessa Wells at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Other partnership opportunities:

• Oregon Traditional Health Worker Commission: Join us at the monthly Oregon THW Commission meetings! These regular events bring together community health organizations and workers to discuss best practices, share successes and challenges, and drive forward initiatives to improve the community health workforce in Oregon. A link to join the meetings, as well as the full meeting schedule, minutes, and other materials can be found on the commission webpage.

• Oregon Mobile Integrated Healthcare Coalition: The ORMIHC is a collaborative group of representatives from EMS agencies and other community health providers, and provides coordination, guidance, and support to mobile integrated healthcare (MIH) and community paramedic programs throughout Oregon, both existing and in development. This group meets every other month and is currently recruiting new members; if you are interested in learning more or joining, please contact Madison Riethman at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

• CLHO Public Health Jobs Spotlight: CLHO has launched a newsletter and LinkedIn page to highlight current and upcoming job opportunities with public health agencies across Oregon. You can read previous announcements on the LinkedIn page, or subscribe to get updates directly to your inbox each week.

Additional Project Information

Goals and Objectives

The Healthy Rural Oregon project has three major focus areas:

1. Increasing the number of Community Health Workers (CHWs) in rural areas, and cross-training CHWs in a variety of skills needed by rural health providers;
2. Increasing the number of certified Community Paramedics (CPs)/Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH) providers in rural areas;
3. Building a thriving network of public health, health care, and education providers in rural Oregon.

The project’s emphasis is on “home-growing” this workforce by recruiting from rural communities and underserved populations while removing barriers for people who might not otherwise have access to these training programs. To meet these goals, HRO partners work together to:

• IDENTIFY and DEVELOP training and cross training needs and programs;

• RECRUIT people from within rural communities to become newly certified community health professionals, and recruit existing professionals to undergo cross-training;

• TRAIN participants in both base certifications and other valuable courses and CEUs;

• SUPPORT participants in navigating training programs, providing financial support for training fees, travel, technology, and childcare, and in connecting with other program participants across the state.

• EMPLOY community health professionals and provide network support for ongoing training and career advancement.

About the Grant

The Healthy Rural Oregon Project is funded by the Rural Public Health Workforce Training Network (RPHWTN) Program through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The funding comes from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. HRSA awarded 31 organizations nationwide for projects running from August 2022 through July 2025. Healthy Rural Oregon was awarded just over $1.5 million to build up the workforce of CHWs and CPs in rural parts of the state. You can see the full list of awardees and find more information about the RPHWTN Program here.