Colorado Welcome Back Program

(Photo: Internationally trained physicians and dentists attend Spring Institute gathering.)

Embracing the Skills & Talents of Colorado's Immigrants & Refugees

Spring Institute launched the Colorado Welcome Back program in 2012 to help internationally trained healthcare professionals get relicensed to practice here in Colorado, giving them the chance to utilize their valuable skills and experience to fill gaps in our qualified healthcare workforce. Through individualized career coaching, re-credentialing navigation support, and scholarships to fund preparatory courses and board exams, the program has assisted dozens of doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals in re-establishing their careers, bringing more linguistically and culturally competent care to hospitals and healthcare providers throughout our state.

Addressing Our State's Physician Shortage

In 2023, Spring Institute partnered with Denver Health to specifically support internationally trained physicians in gaining clinical experience to help them match to medical residencies here in Colorado.  Along with navigation support and career coaching for a bigger cohort, the Colorado Works for International Physicians (CO-WIP) program competitively selects four participants each year to complete an intensive nine-month clinical training program.

Enhancing Our Healthcare Workforce

This program works! Three of the first four clinical training cohort members successfully matched to family and internal medicine residencies where they will care for traditionally underserved populations at hospitals in Pueblo, Grand Junction, and Westminster. The second cohort has completed its training and will apply to residences in March 2026. We wish them luck! On top of that, dozens of additional program participants have benefited from navigation support as they completed professional trainings and required assessments, gained valuable experience to advance their careers through research, volunteering, and fellowships, and obtained other jobs in the healthcare sector.

"Being a doctor has been my dream job since kindergarten, and success in the CO-WIP program facilitating my successful match to residency is like a dream come true. I’ve felt so welcomed and supported by Spring Institute and the staff at Denver Health, there was no detail overlooked in terms of helping me master the many administrative steps and crucial clinical skills needed to match and get back to my calling as a physician. I recommend Spring Institute’s Career Pathway services to all my fellow IMGs because I know we have great knowledge and skills and just need opportunities to share those in this community we love, in the state where we now call home." - Sulafa (Sudan), CWB & CO-WIP participant who matched to a family medicine residency program in Grand Junction, shown in photo below with Gov. Polis and Denver Health staff

Support Spring Institute and the Colorado Welcome Back program in helping internationally trained healthcare professionals regain their careers!

(Photo: Dania Mohammed, a CWB participant who was accepted into the prestigious Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Colorado, receives Spring Institute's Intercultural Champion Award)

(Photo: Governor Polis visits Denver Health's Lowry Clinic to meet the doctors completing the first clinical training program offered by Denver Health in partnership with Spring Institute.)