BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA – California and the nation face a growing crisis of unemployment and underemployment among boys and men of color, but the rapid growth of the health services sector – with an urgent need for more health care workers – presents an unprecedented opportunity to address this problem, a new report from The Greenlining Institute argues.
To be released on Jan. 20 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) and available now for journalists to preview online, Pathways Out of Poverty: Boys and Men of Color and Jobs in the Health Sector, looks at the pressing need for a larger and more diverse health sector workforce, the obstacles that have kept young men of color out of these jobs, and how California and other states can turn this dilemma into real progress.
“This is a classic chance to turn crisis into opportunity,” said Jordan Medina, Greenlining Institute Health Policy Fellow and lead author of the report. “We urgently need more health care workers of all types, and we need them to be diverse enough to care for all in this ethnically and culturally diverse state. We have a chance to deliver better care while easing the crisis of unemployment among boys and men of color.
“This won’t happen by itself,” Medina added. “We have to act. For example, the state needs to follow federal EEOC guidelines to ensure that criminal background information is assessed individually, rather than being a blanket barrier to employment, and health care companies need to put real effort into targeted hiring, training and recruitment of vulnerable populations, including boys and men of color.”
Key findings include:
• Boys and men of color (BMoC) make up 70 percent of California males age 24 and under and face shockingly high levels of unemployment and underemployment – far higher than comparable whites. For example, the unemployment rate for black males aged 20-24 last year was 20.6 percent.
• Thanks to health care reform and an aging, growing population, California’s health services sector is projected to grow much faster than other parts of the state’s economy – 27 percent by 2020.
• A majority-minority state like California needs a diverse health workforce to make the state’s diverse population feel welcome and to deliver culturally competent care, but men of color are seriously underrepresented in this workforce. While health professionals other than doctors and nurses tend to be racially diverse, males only represent 14.7 percent of these allied health professionals.
• Multiple barriers make it difficult for boys and men of color to access health sector careers, including cultural attitudes, inadequate investment in K-12 education and lack of curriculum designed to prepare young people for the careers of tomorrow. However, good models for such programs exist, such as Health Tech Academy at Valley High School in Sacramento.
• Involvement in the criminal justice system creates another major obstacle due to background check requirements and other screening procedures – even when the crime was minor, nonviolent, or very long ago. One recent study found that half of all black males have been arrested by age 23.
• Multiple strategies can help tear down these barriers. Among other things, California should create sustained, long-term funding for the Careers Pathway Trust to fund linked-learning pathway programs and involve the health industry in backing such programs; align state law with Equal Employment Opportunities Commission recommendations so that criminal background information is assessed individually, rather than being a blanket barrier to employment; and create targeted hiring agreements with local governments and health sector employers to encourage BMoC employment.
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THE GREENLINING INSTITUTE
A Multi-Ethnic Public Policy, Research and Advocacy Institute
www.greenlining.org
