Mission
Our mission is to assure a highly trained public health workforce with a focus on vulnerable communities in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.
Purpose
Our purpose is to strengthen the competence of the current and future public health workforce to address complex and evolving health needs of the public.
What We Do
The Region 2 Public Health Training Center is committed to conducting the following activities for the public health workforce in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands:
- Assessing training needs of city, county, and state health departments
- Identifying existing and developing new high-quality online training for governmental public health workers
- Providing financial and technical support for public health students completing practicum experiences in public health agencies in medically underserved areas
History
The First Cohort
The Public Health Training Center (PHTC) Program was first introduced and funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in 2000. For ten years, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health (CUMSPH) led the New York New Jersey Public Health Training Center (NYNJ PHTC) in collaboration with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey School of Public Health (now Rutgers University School of Public Health) and University at Albany School of Public Health. In 2011, HRSA reorganized the program and the NYNJ-PHTC ceased to exist, with the three partners receiving individual grants to better tailor training offerings to the public health workforce in their respective jurisdictions.
PHTC Reorganization
The reorganization of the PHTC Program in 2011 led to 37 new centers across the nation. CUMSPH, in partnership with the State University of New York, Stony Brook’s Graduate Program in Public Health, now led the New York City – Long Island – Lower Tri County Public Health Training Center. This Center worked closely with the New York State Department of Health, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH), and the five county health departments of Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties to provide public health training in the new jurisdiction.
The Regional PHTCs
In the 2014 Request for Proposals, HRSA introduced a Regional PHTC organization, with one PHTC in each of the 10 Department of Health and Human Services Regions of the United States. To serve the public health workforce of Region 2, which includes New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, CUMSPH would lead the Region 2 PHTC. This new regional PHTC was a collaboration of the Rutgers University Office for Public Health Practice, New York Association of County Health Officials, University of Puerto Rico Graduate School of Public Health, Impactivo LLC, and University of the Virgin Islands Center for Community Engagement and Lifelong Learning.
In July 2018, the Region 2 PHTC was re-funded and still serves the Region 2 public health workforce via partnerships with the Rutgers University Center for Public Health Workforce Development, New York Association of County Health Officials, Impactivo LLC, and the National Network of Public Health Institutes.
For more information, visit HRSA’s Regional Public Health Training Center website.
Logo
Our logo reflects the imagery of public health and the four representative areas that compose Region 2. The circle is constantly present in the field of public health, showing up in the diagram of the 10 Essential Services of Public Health and the socio-ecological model. Additionally, we turned to the flags of the representative locations that make up Region 2 for inspiration and key colors were chosen from each of the flags.
