While agriculture consumes more land and gets more notice, health care employs more people and represents a bigger piece of Fresno’s economy. But just as access to health care is profoundly unequal, so are pay and working conditions in health jobs. And the pandemic and health facility closures, as with Madera Community Hospital, have added to the stresses and insecurities of working in health care. How can we improve the security, work, and health of all caregivers and other workers—clerks, janitors, subcontractors—who toil in health institutions? What ideas do workers themselves have for enhancing health care, both for patients and caregivers? And how can we elevate the importance of the fast-growing, lower-income jobs in this sector—like nursing assistants and home health care workers?

Public health professor Helda Pinzón-Perez, health care workforce researcher Janette Dill, and in-home supportive services provider Martha Valladarez visit Zócalo on site in Fresno to discuss how to build a healthier health care workforce.

Zócalo invites our in-person audience to continue the conversation with our speakers and each other at a post-event reception with complimentary drinks and small bites.

Live simultaneous ASL and Spanish translation of the discussion will be provided.

“What Is a Good Job Now?” is a series supported by The James Irvine Foundation, focusing on workers in the low-wage sectors of California’s economy, in communities across the state. Public programs and essays, grounded in workers’ experiences and realities, will explore how to make the hardest jobs more rewarding, and make life better for those who do them.