To build and support a health care workforce through education, leadership and community collaboration in order to improve access and quality of care for underserved populations in border counties.

Goals:  To increase the health care workforce pipeline with a special focus on youth, displaced workers and individuals seeking a second career

• To raise the numbers, types, diversity and retention of primary health and social service care professionals working in underserved areas
• To improve the skills of health care professionals and students to promote good community health, wellness and effective cultural competence
• To enhance community wellness and prevention through a variety of health care initiatives

The San Diego Border Area Health Education Center is primarily supported by a national, multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary, community-based federally funded initiative that addresses the primary health care and workforce needs of medically-underserved communities. Funded in part by grant funds administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, AHEC's fundamental requirement in California is an affiliation with a school of medicine and in the state of California, the University of California system provides the school of medicine partnership for local Cal-AHEC programs and locally the San Diego Border AHEC is partnered with the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

There are forty-six other Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) across the country that support one hundred and eighty centers in underserved communities. Sixty percent of these centers are community based non-profit organizations, nineteen percent are community colleges, nine percent are community hospitals, and three percent are health centers.