Chicago Tribune reports: Pritzker Traubert Foundation awards $5M Chicago Talent Challenge to City Colleges and Cook County Health

This is an excerpt only, to read the full article click here: Pritzker Traubert Foundation awards funding for health care jobs.

Last year, Penny Pritzker called on city nonprofits, training providers, and employer coalitions to propose a way to best connect Chicagoans with good health care jobs. The goal: To build a pathway for talent tied to real hiring demand.

City Colleges of Chicago, in collaboration with Cook County Health, has answered the call. The entities will work together with the University of Chicago Medicine’s HealthCatalyst Chicago to train and place workers into 1,000 health care jobs over the next three years, with up to 400 positions annually thereafter, as the winners of the “2025 Chicago Talent Challenge.”

“Students will be coming with the idea that they’re going to work at Cook County Health,” said Juan Salgado, Chancellor of City Colleges of Chicago. “When they get to doing experiential work, it’s going to be a paid clinical to ensure Cook County Health gets the employees that Cook County Health really needs,” he said.

The plan is additive, Salgado added, bringing income to communities and eventually, economic prosperity.  “We know these folks are going to end up being homeowners…have a little extra money for being able to send their kids to college someday…have resources for retirement,” he said. “All those quality-of-life indicators that are really important in reducing life expectancy gaps in these communities. It’s all interrelated, and this effort is making it a reality.”

Nathalia Henry, a student in the medical assisting program at Malcolm X College, is excited about the opportunity to be in the clinical setting and to see, in real time, the impact the work has on patients’ lives. With a background in clinical and social-behavioral research, she transitioned from that track to become a family practice nurse practitioner.

“Direct patient care is something that’s been on my heart for quite some time, and it’s just the timing and the opportunity to make the transition,” said the Logan Square resident, who graduates this summer. Henry sees the medical assistant role as a very strong foundation for advanced clinical practice. “Medical assistants are often the first clinical point of contact for the patient–carrying real responsibility in shaping the patient experience,” she said.