Second Round Grantees
Hartford, Connecticut
Capital Workforce Partners is a regional Workforce Investment Board serving 37 municipalities in North Central Connecticut. It’s Jobs to Careers program will address four needs of Certified Nursing Assistants and other low-wage, frontline long-term care workers: clinical skills; basic literacy skills; basic job readiness skills; and awareness of skill-building, wage increase, and career advancement opportunities. The board coordinates comprehensive programs for job seekers and employers, and its mission is to leverage public and private resources to produce skilled workers for a competitive regional economy. Regional Partners for this Allied Health Initiative include: Jerome Home, Trinity Hill Care Center, and Southington Care Center, with a goal of reaching out to more institutions over time. Other partners in the program include: Asnuntuck, Capital, Manchester, and Tunxis community colleges, Charter Oak State College, Capitol Region Education Council, Vernon Regional Adult Basic Education, Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund, and, for select facilities, the 1199 Training and Upgrading Fund.
Web site: http://www.capitalworkforce.org
New York, New York
The Charles B. Wang Community Health Center and the City University of New York are partnering to address the need for skilled bilingual and bicultural health care workers who can serve the city’s growing Asian-American population. Frontline workers targeted for this project are medical/dental assistants and patient services representatives who provide essential services, such as patient care, health education, linking patients to needed services, increasing patient compliance with treatment, and language access. A training program for frontline staff will combine work-based learning, classroom training, and career development to meet the challenges of the highly complex and technical health care system. The program will be relevant to health care employers serving diverse and underserved populations. Completion of the program will lead to a certificate and eligibility for wage increases or promotions based on competency assessments. The project will improve quality of care by investing in the development of a skilled, trained frontline workforce, and it will improve access to health care professions for individuals from the community.
Web site: http://www.cbwchc.org
East Boston, Massachusetts
East Boston Neighborhood Health Center (EBNHC), Bunker Hill Community College, Jewish Vocational Services, and World Education are partnering to create a more seamless pipeline for EBNHC’s entry-level workers to move up career ladders to jobs within the organization that require more education. The project, “Pathways for Frontline Workers,” combines formal classroom study with on-the-job education to enable EBNHC frontline workers who might never have imagined that higher education was within their reach to obtain new skills and earn industry-recognized credentials. The EBNHC Education and Training Institute is at the center of this innovative approach to providing formal education designed to prepare entry-level workers to qualify for new and exciting job opportunities. EBNHC has approximately 800 employees; more than 300 are frontline, entry-level workers.
Web site: http://www.ebnhc.org
Youngstown, Ohio
Humility of Mary Health Partners will team with local Career and Technical Centers to implement Pathways to a Brighter Future, a work-based training program in acute care hospitals in Youngstown, Warren, and Boardman, Ohio. Three frontline patient care positions will benefit from the initial work-based training: health care associate, unit clerk, and monitor technician. The program includes 24 weeks of prerequisite training, which can be individualized to meet the needs of each employee. Work-based learning will cover such topics as medical terminology, clinical skills and technology, and departmental operations. It will be delivered through patient and staff rounds with Learning Coaches. Employees in the program will earn industry-recognized certifications for a variety of jobs, including phlebotomist, certified coder, nurse aide, patient care technician, medical assistant, and certified health care associate.
Web site: http://www.hmpartners.org
MS Hospital Association Health, Research & Educational Foundation, Madison, Mississippi
The Mississippi Jobs to Careers Initiative is a partnership of the MS Hospital Association Health, Research & Educational Foundation, MS Office of Nursing Workforce (which manages the effort), Central MS Medical Center, and Hinds Community College. The initiative will provide frontline medical center workers with opportunities to increase their skills, thereby reducing high turnover rates and vacancies among ancillary staff and improving the quality of care provided to consumers. The medical center, with other partners, will develop a training curriculum; revise human resource policies to include a career ladder for frontline workers with wage increases, recognition, and rewards; and establish the work ethic needed to sustain a continual work-based learning model. Hinds Community College will develop courses, policies, and processes to provide classes on the medical center campus. The curricula will include short-term, challenging instruction blocks that apply immediately in the health care setting and lead to certificates and academic credits for learning accomplishments.
Web sites:
http://www.mhanet.org
http://www.monw.org
http://www.centralmississippimedicalcenter.com
http://www.hindscc.edu
San Francisco, California
The San Francisco Community Workplace Learning Partnership will develop, implement, and assess a work-based learning initiative to increase the quality of care delivered by Tenderloin Health (TLH), a community-based health care organization. This partnership will enable TLH to address high turnover rates among frontline community health workers, better integrate consumer-employees into the workforce, and increase the quality of services. Employees will receive tailored training to help them overcome educational, economic, and social barriers to career advancement. TLH will work with City College of San Francisco to adapt the college’s Community Health Worker certificate program into a work-based curriculum. Most of the program will be delivered through work-based assignments to be carried out during the workday. The project will create a shift from campus-based to community-based vocational training at the college and increase its commitment to examining innovative models of vocational training. It will also establish TLH as a learning community organization in which the career advancement of consumer employees is part of the organizational mission.
Web site: http://www.tenderloinhealth.org
Fairbanks, Alaska
The Alaska Jobs to Careers Project seeks comprehensive, system change to address the workforce development needs of frontline behavioral and mental health care employers and employees: entry-level workers, village-based counselors, substance-abuse counselors, and case managers. The project is a partnership of the University of Alaska, the Norton Sound Health Corporation, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education Mental Health Program, and the Annapolis Coalition. Many Alaska health care employers face logistical problems sending staff to training or bringing training to staff, and training received does not translate to recognized certification. Also, entry-level staff turnover is high due to the lack of benefits, low pay, and limited advancement opportunities. The project will establish the competencies needed to obtain certification as a behavioral health aide. This certification can be earned, assessed, and granted within the work setting, utilizing a curriculum driven by the needs and goals of the workplace. The project will teach and foster the competencies in the workplace using peer and supervisor mentoring, on-the-job modeling, and guided learning experiences.
Web site: http://www.uaf.edu/tarbh
Seattle, Washington
Virginia Mason Medical Center and Renton Technical College will collaborate to increase the quantity and improve the quality of medical assistants as a strategy for providing better preventive health and primary care. The partnership will address many of the challenges faced by medical assistants, such as a lack of higher-level clinical and administrative skills and limited opportunities for training and advancement. By advancing frontline workers’ skills and careers, the program will increase their wages, improve the productivity and quality of care delivered, and lower the medical center’s turnover and recruitment costs. To meet these goals, the medical center and the college will provide medical assistants with work-based training, create a medical assistant career ladder, revise tuition assistance policies, and improve management training. Work-based learning will occur through learning portfolios, online research and instruction, in-person instruction and seminars, job-based learning, and competency assessment. About one-third of the course content will be delivered online, one-third at Renton Technical College, and one-third on the job.
Web site: http://www.virginiamason.org
