Sunrise Community Health (Sunrise) provides affordable access to health care for individuals of all ages. Sunrise supports the health of 42,000 patients, over 90% of whom live at an income level indicating they face barriers to affordable health care. The services provided by Sunrise include medical, dental, optometry, and behavioral health care. They operate eleven clinics in Northern Colorado, with eight located in Weld County.
Sunrise has been experiencing a severe, chronic shortage of Medical Assistants (MAs) and Dental Assistants (DAs) across all clinic sites. Many seeking careers as MAs and DAs face financial barriers due to the high cost of training through existing programs. Many training programs also train students for work in private practices and may not adequately prepare them for the unique Community Health Center work environment. To alleviate this shortage, they have been piloting a career ladder program for these specific clinical support roles.
The Weld Trust recently awarded a Workforce Development grant to help Sunrise expand this program and convert space at Sunrise Monfort Family Clinic into a training room for MAs and DAs. The grant from The Weld Trust will support capital and one-time support to include books, manuals, teaching aids, desktops, and presentation equipment. Ultimately, this “learning lab” will improve the quality of their career ladder program and enhance training opportunities for MAs and DAs who are critical to the team-based care model at Sunrise.
