San Diego Behavioral Health Workforce Sector Partnership Brief
How the scorecard works + component scores
Partnership Opportunity and Organizing Readiness use weighted 0–4 evidence dimensions converted to 0–100. 75–100 = High, 55–74 = Moderate, below 55 = Low.
Evidence Confidence: A = direct/current/authoritative; B = strong evidence with limited caveats; C = directional/proxy evidence with important limitations; D = weak, stale or poorly aligned; U = insufficient. The grade describes the evidence, not the sector.
Host Fit separately assesses backbone suitability across industry credibility, convening power, neutrality, staffing/resilience, worker/community connection, education/workforce integration, regional reach and fiscal/administrative capacity. It does not grant employer-governance authority.
Funding durability is a qualitative status, not another score. Screen 0 tests multi-employer structure, a shared workforce problem, collective-action leverage and Worker Value; a high numeric score never overrides a failed or materially unresolved gate.
Use ELEVATE and related high-road infrastructure as the operating system, while treating wages, supervision, advancement and retention as problems the partnership must improve.
Why this case matters
San Diego has a very large behavioral-health workforce shortage and now a large, multi-year implementation platform. But several core entry and intermediate roles remain below the local living-wage benchmark. The partnership should therefore be judged by job-quality and advancement outcomes, not headcount growth alone.
Worker value
Counselor and psychiatric-technician medians remain below San Diego's $32.88/hour living-wage benchmark. Paid apprenticeship, supervision support, debt relief, wage progression and movement into licensed roles are central to Worker Value.
ELEVATE has moved from design into implementation.
By February 2026, the Pay It Forward loan program was preparing its next enrollment and first graduates, the Behavioral Health Apprenticeship Network had a contractor, and peer-support contractors had begun enrollment and training. County plans also target 360 master's-level interns. The next proof point is completion-to-placement, retention and wage progression.
Los Angeles County High Road Training Partnerships
As of August 2026, LA County reported 27 High Road Training Partnerships, more than 2,500 workers enrolled, over 1,400 graduates and more than 630 hires into related employment. The useful lesson is to connect employer, labor and worker-centered training to quality-job outcomes.
What a WDB or regional convener could do next
The sequence is staged so the partnership becomes more formal only as shared employer action and worker value become more concrete.