With improved economic opportunities and higher incomes—through better paying and steady jobs as well as small business ownership— people and communities are better able to afford basic needs like housing, utilities, transportation, nutritious foods, medication, childcare, education costs, social connections and can contribute to savings that help accumulate generational wealth. 

As workforce shortages face South Florida Anchor Alliance members, the Health Foundation invested $1.3 million to fund expanded enrollment, scholarships, and other support services for nursing, health sciences, and healthcare administration students at three local public colleges—Broward College, Florida Memorial University, and Miami Dade College. 

With the funding, the Health Foundation seeks to bolster South Florida’s healthcare workforce and increase access to well-paying, in-demand jobs for students from the region’s underserved, Black, and Hispanic communities. 

All three institutions will use the grants to attract more minority, first-generation, and low-income students to their healthcare programs via scholarships, retention, and support initiatives to help students graduate successfully and connect to health system jobs. 

Broward College, which received a $500,000 grant, will use the funds to support health sciences students with unmet personal and economic needs. The school plans to leverage the Health Foundation’s contribution to secure an additional $700,000 to fund the efforts. 

Florida Memorial University—which received $300,000—will provide first-generation college students with access to a guided career pathways program, offer scholarships, and assist with internships and careers for students in the field of Healthcare Administration. In addition, the University will leverage the Health Foundation grant with $500,000 from the City of Miami STEM-field student scholarship program. 

Miami Dade College—which received a $500,000 grant from the Health Foundation matched by an additional $500,000 from the Mitchell Wolfson Family Foundation—will use the funds to provide nursing scholarship support and student wraparound services to help address the nursing workforce crisis in South Florida.