Western New York Rural Area Health Education Center (R-AHEC) is a non-profit independent facilitation resource that creates community partnerships to educate and place health care professionals - doctors, nurses, dentists, technologists, and other allied health practitioners - in the underserved areas where they are needed most.

R-AHEC is headquartered in Batavia, New York and serves as a networking hub to a rural         11-county region. We link academic institutions, students, health facilities and professionals together, working to address the health manpower needs of our rural communities.

Considering community input and keeping in mind the expectations of the national AHEC program, our Center's areas of focus include the following:

• Career education and career path development for local youth at all school levels
• Coordination of rural preceptors and student training opportunities
• On-going training for area professionals
• Career ladder development
• Community needs assessment and priority area professional recruitment
• Community and facility consultation services

In addition to these core services, the R-AHEC is involved with organizing upwards of twenty community-based projects at any given point in time. These projects vary in scope and focus and are designed to target specific community needs. Projects can range from 2-day career education camps for seventh and eighth graders to distance learning programs that support rural practitioners in improving women's health.

"To improve health and health care through education" is our mission. By making career education opportunities available to elementary, middle and high schools, we can attract our brightest youth to medical and health care careers. And by providing our professionals with on-going training, we can enable them to remain current with best practices- ultimately giving our rural communities an assured access to quality health care now and in the future.