Our program addresses two national challenges to higher education: the need to educate an ethnically and culturally representative workforce and the need to prepare health and social service providers to supply quality services and care to older adults.  Our project intersects these two issues to improve the quality, accessibility, retention, and sustainability of higher education programs in gerontology and related health and social service disciplines.  Activities with collaborating institutions began January 2007.

Our objectives are to:

1. Establish a cross-system project management structure that draws upon a broad range of experts, systems representatives, and key stakeholders;
2. Adapt existing models for cross-system education, articulation, faculty development;
3. Create and test competency-based gerontology curricula for gerontology, nursing, and social work representing education/career ladder principles and national disciplinary standards;
4. Plan and implement faculty development programs in gerontology;
5. Document process (formative) evaluation and summative outcomes at four levels: system, institution, faculty and student level; and
6. Present processes, procedures, tools and products to foster adoption in additional California regions, and ultimately to promote national dissemination.

Collaborating Institutions:

• California State University, Channel Islands
• Santa Barbara City College
• University of California, Los Angeles
• Ventura Community College

NEW! In June 2009, FIPSE announced a Special Focus Competition, Innovative Strategies in Community Colleges for Working Adults and Displaced Workers Program.  UCLA primed a proposal in partnership with College of the Canyons and Santa Barbara City College to pilot an evidence-based health promotion educator certificate program at each campus and was awarded the three-year grant (1/1/2010 – 12/31/2012).

Evaluation Management

Goodman Research Group, Inc. (GRG) serves as the external evaluator for both projects, specializing in program evaluation.  GRG has also done extensive work in evaluation research, needs assessments, formative research, process evaluation, outcome evaluation, and summative evaluation.

The contents of this website were developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education.  However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.