Project Description

The Rural South Public Health Training Center is a collaborative project of the University of Florida (UF) College of Public Health and Health Professions and the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) Institute of Public Health.  The center is designed to serve medically underserved counties in Florida, especially those in rural regions of the state, by providing competency-based training for the public health workforce, enhancing public health services, and decreasing disparities in access to those services. The center will identify the needs of the workforce and residents in medically underserved areas and tailor training and services based on those needs, with a special emphasis on needs related to HIV/AIDS.

Since travel, even within Florida, has been greatly curtailed in the past two years, the center will focus its efforts on providing online training to increase the accessibility and convenience of the programs being offered. Free distance courses will allow public health workers to stay current in their fields and to increase the breadth of their knowledge without having to use professional or personal resources for travel. The distance courses will provide continuing education credits for up to 500 public health workers per year. For public health professionals with a Bachelor’s degree who are interested in more intensive training, 15-credit online certificates in Public Health Foundations and in Prevention and Management of HIV will be available.

The center will also participate in community-based projects in collaboration with state and community partners, and provide paid internships for Master of Public Health (MPH) students who engage in the community projects. A special emphasis will be assigned to HIV/AIDS in needs assessment, workforce training, community projects, and student internships.  These activities will be guided by the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, federal Implementation Plan, July 2010.