Challenges and Opportunities for Workforce Programs in Rural Areas: Evidence from HPOG 2.0

The purpose of the brief is to explore the characteristics, implementation strategies, challenges, and outcomes of Health Profession Opportunity Grants 2.0 programs operating in rural areas.

• A quarter of HPOG 2.0 programs served participants in mostly rural or partly rural areas.
• Rural programs served a larger share of White participants and younger participants than non-rural HPOG 2.0 programs.
• A larger share of participants in rural programs were working at baseline than in non-rural programs.
• Common implementation challenges reported by rural program staff included outreach and recruitment, access to transportation and child care, and staffing.
• Rural HPOG 2.0 program staff attributed certain implementation challenges to long distances and low population density. 
• Participant take-up of support services was similar at both rural and non-rural programs, suggesting that HPOG 2.0 programs in rural areas were successful in providing these services despite location-specific challenges.
• Rural and non-rural programs showed positive impacts on receipt of training, receipt of credentials, and employment in the healthcare field.

The brief uses data from the HPOG 2.0 National Evaluation, which collected qualitative and quantitative information from 38 non-Tribal HPOG 2.0 programs and their participants. This includes administrative data from the Participant Accomplishment and Grant Evaluation System (PAGES), the management information system used by all grantees; participant responses to follow-up surveys three years after enrollment; program staff responses from two rounds of grantee surveys; and notes from evaluation monitoring calls between the research team and local program staff. The brief uses these data to classify the rurality of each program, identify differences in participant characteristics and service receipt between rural and non-rural programs, examine differences in impacts between rural and non-rural programs, and explore implementation challenges and strategies reported by rural programs.

The HPOG 2.0 National Evaluation did not set out to systematically examine differences in implementation between rural and non-rural programs. As a result, the grantee surveys and participant follow-up surveys did not methodically collect data for the purpose of informing the brief.

Radha Roy, Douglas Walton, Lola Jacquin, and Jasmine Harmon. (2024). Challenges and Opportunities for Workforce Programs in Rural Areas: Evidence from HPOG 2.0. OPRE 2024-112. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.