Washington, D.C. (July 1, 2014) – The Association of Clinicians for the Underserved (ACU) has been awarded a 3-year National Cooperative Agreement from the HHS’ Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) to assist Federally-Qualified Health Centers with their clinical workforce needs.  The award was made late last month and is slated to begin today, July 1.

With this new federal funding, ACU will be able to provide technical assistance and training directly to health centers experiencing the greatest recruitment and retention issues. ACU will be working with a panel of national experts to identify the current challenges facing health centers and to develop trainings and individualized assistance to help address those needs. All health centers will be able to access current best practices and consolidated information to help recruit and retain high-quality clinical staff.

“We are honored to be chosen to help with health centers’ workforce needs and we are very excited to get started on this important project. Recruiting and retaining clinicians of all types is critical to increasing access to care and decreasing the disparities in access across our country,” said Craig A. Kennedy, ACU’s Executive Director. “ACU has long been committed to this effort and we’re looking forward to making even more progress in the years to come.”

ACU was selected to receive a National Cooperative Agreement (NCA) to help health centers and look-alikes meet program requirements and improve performance. NCAs also support Health Center Program development and ACU will be conducting national analyses under the newly funded project.

For more information on BPHC’s National Cooperative Agreements, please click HERE.

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ACU is a nonprofit, trans-disciplinary organization of clinicians, advocates and health care organizations united in a common mission to improve the health of America’s underserved populations and to enhance the development and support of the health care clinicians serving these populations. Established in 1996 by participants and alumni of the National Health Service Corps, ACU has a constituency of more than 8,000 clinicians and 900 organizations. Membership includes individuals representing 18 professional disciplines as well as community clinics, health care organizations and professional societies.