The El Paso Community Foundation is a charitable foundation which facilitates the philanthropic interests of donors in West Texas, southern New Mexico, and Northern Chihuahua, Mexico. The Johnson & Johnson-funded Bridge to Employment (BTE) partnership emerged from the Foundation's partnership with Johnson & Johnson Medical, Inc. – Surgikos and its interest in promoting charitable work within El Paso's sister city of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico—a border city with 1.7 million residents and approximately 40 percent of its workforce employed in the industrial sector.
The BTE program focused on increasing the supply of trained nursing and healthcare professionals, especially within the industrial healthcare field in Ciudad Juarez. Students of the Escuela de Enfermeria participated in an industrial nursing internship program during the school year. These BTE participants worked closely with medical professionals at Johnson & Johnson's Surgikos plant, where they learned first hand about topics such as industrial safety, nutrition, and substance abuse. At the conclusion of the month-long internship, they received academic credit for their participation.
