Explore by honoree:
Making the World a Better Place to Grow Old (Healthy Home Laboratory)
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and Age-Friendly Greater Pittsburgh
The world is growing old, and the Pittsburgh community is not “built,” physically or culturally, to easily promote aging in place. The purpose of the University of Pittsburgh Healthy Home Laboratory (HHL), through a rich partnership with Age-Friendly Greater Pittsburgh (AFGP), is to create and implement new technology solutions and support services that enable people, particularly older adults, to live independently and safely at home.
When the HHL was established in 2022, the original focus narrowly targeted improving the physical environment of older housing stock through technology development. Since that time and through the evolution of an interprofessional team and rich community partnerships with organizations like AFGP, the HHL now employs a more holistic approach for promoting aging in place.
Anchored by a shared goal of improving the health and well-being of adults across the lifespan in the region, the HHL and AFGP collaborate on activities of impact that promote aging through a positive lens. The HHL team has increased awareness and understanding of age-related changes, common pathways that influence "aging into disability" and better employs a "strength-based approach" in solving challenges to aging in place.
The mission and purpose of both the HHL and AFGP focus on making the region (and world) a better place to grow old. While this makes for an obvious and natural relationship, the HHL and AFGP have respectfully developed this partnership to draw on the strengths of each organization to complement rather than compete in efforts to promote aging in place.
Early in its establishment, the HHL benefitted from recognition by AFGP as a leading partner in creating "forever homes" (i.e., aging in place). Additionally, HHL educational activities incorporate key elements of AFGP's Ageism campaign to positively influence attitudes of the students, faculty and consumers that interact with the HHL.
Equally, AFGP's impact on the community is strengthened by its relationship with HHL. HHL offers an educational site for its Scholars, a meaningful opportunity for its Community Panel and ways to make meaningful changes to the community through grant-funded research collaborations.
Dental Assistant Training Program
School of Dental Medicine and Three Rivers Alliance of Community Health Centers
Dental offices across the country have been impacted by the shortage of trained assistants available to work. In 2023, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there are approximately 376,500 Dental Assistant jobs and that the outlook for this career projects a faster than average growth of 8% in 2023-2033.
Recognizing this critical need for trained dental assistants, Pitt Dental Medicine developed the Dental Assistant Training Program. In July 2024, after the program’s initial trainee cohort completed the pilot of the program, Pitt Dental in collaboration with Three Rivers Alliance of Community Health Centers (TRACHC) and several community partners expanded and launched the Dental Assistant Training Program as a hybrid training program with the purpose of:
- Training more dental assistants to help solve the tremendous shortage of dental assistants in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania;
- Expanding access to care in rural areas by training dental assistants in communities where they live, without requiring relocation for schooling, so that they are more likely to stay in their communities and be employed as healthcare professionals; and
- Helping to elevate young people who will complete the program and work in the healthcare industry in jobs with sustainable wages.
The expansion to a hybrid program is a unique and creative approach to addressing the nationwide shortage of dental assistants and makes achieving these goals possible. Pitt faculty deliver didactic training online and students are matched to private practices or community health centers in their home regions for clinical training. Collaborating with community partners helps place dental assistants in offices with the greatest need, supporting staffing efforts while also creating career opportunities for trainees.
Dental assistants are valuable to dental practices as they provide the extra hands for dental providers; they help greet patients, set up exam rooms, take radiographs, sterilize equipment and more. Assistants truly help keep dental offices and patient appointments running smoothly. Private practices, community health centers, as well as rural and urban locations are impacted by this national shortage of dental assistants. In places where access to care is limited, including rural areas and communities with low average incomes or vulnerable populations, Pitt Dental Medicine is focused on making a positive impact and increasing access to care.
Under the hybrid training model, trainees receive valuable education in approximately four months. Didactic training is held online, and clinical training takes place at partnering dental offices or community health centers. This program addresses the impact that dental assistant job shortages have had at FQHCs and rurally located dental offices. By partnering with TRACHC, as well as additional partnerships with Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers, Allegheny County Health Department, and private dental offices, the program has an ability to impact more lives.
This program helps to meet a workforce need to fill these needed jobs and opens this opportunity to populations that otherwise may not have had the chance to receive the kind of educational training needed to prepare them for careers in oral healthcare. Partnerships with clinics in rural areas of the commonwealth are also critical to increasing access to care in these regions. Clinics that have faced challenges of hiring workers now have this pathway to hire workers that are eager to learn. This program benefits the region, the state, the healthcare industry, and the participating trainees who will become successful dental support staff.
Partnerships for Family Support
Office of Child Development and the Allegheny County Department of Human Services
Since 1996, as a collaboration between Pitt’s Office of Child Development and the Allegheny County Department of Human Services Office of Community Services, Partnerships for Family Support (PFS) provides learning and development for staff and families with the Allegheny Family Center Network.
This collaboration is designed to make sure that Allegheny County’s Department of Human Services and the 164 staff and 8561 families served at the 26 family centers in the County get the most innovative, research-based supports that Pitt has to offer.
Over decades, research and professional development topics have included leadership, and advocacy mentoring, child development, taking a strengths-based approach to family support, and building on protective factors. Additionally, the PFS project offers technical assistance to family center directors for family and child programming, center operations, and recruitment. Through all these activities, Pitt students have had opportunities to be involved and develop their community engagement skills for future careers that often serve the county as well.
Across all activities, PFS embodies the University’s commitment to community engagement, in part as champions of Pitt’s Community Engagement Centers (CECs). PFS has given families and family center staff positive experiences in Pitt CEC spaces, helping to repair their trust in Pitt and create a renewed sense of connection. In this partnership, Pitt conveys that the university is committed to authentic relationship building, shifting power to families and community stakeholders, and meaningful engagement.
PFS serves as an example of how long-term, trusting partnerships between the University and county government can be mutually beneficial and help children and families in our region thrive. PFS is privileged to partner with all 26 family centers across the county as they transform.