EBNHC Awarded National Jobs Initiative Grant to Help Frontline Workers Upgrade Skills and Advance Career Opportunities

East Boston, MA, February 28, 2008—The East Boston Neighborhood Health Center’s Education & Training Institute has been awarded a $437,000 grant to help advance the careers of frontline health care workers by providing training to build skills, increase earning potential, and improve the quality of care and services that patients receive. “Pathways for Frontline Workers” was one of eight selected programs nationwide through Jobs to Careers: Promoting Work-Based Learning for Quality Care, a national initiative that supports a variety of projects to develop the skills of workers who deliver direct health care and services.

Through the grant, the partnership between the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center (EBNHC), Bunker Hill Community College, Jewish Vocational Services, and World Education seeks to create a more seamless pipeline for EBNHC’s entry-level workers to move up the “career ladder” to jobs within the organization that require more education. “Pathways for Frontline Workers” provides a combination of formal classroom and on-the-job education that allows EBNHC frontline workers—who might never have imagined that higher education was within their reach—to obtain new skills and industry-recognized credentials. The EBNHC Education & Training Institute is at the center of this innovative approach to providing formal education designed to prepare the health center’s entry-level workforce to qualify for new and exciting job opportunities. EBNHC has approximately 800 employees; over 300 are frontline, entry-level workers.

Across the United States, 4.7 million frontline health care workers provide patients and clients with preventive and early intervention services, chronic illness management strategies, and long-term and post-hospitalization rehabilitative care. Despite their critical and expanding role in delivering health care, these workers earn less than $40,000 per year on average and have limited opportunities to build skills or advance professionally.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for the health center and the community we serve,” said Jack Cradock, President and CEO of EBNHC. “From our inception, being an employer of choice and creating meaningful career ladders for our employees have been vital parts of what we do. Bunker Hill Community College, Jewish Vocational Services, and World Education are the ideal partners in this exciting initiative. Our hope is that this grant will enable our Education & Training Institute to substantially increase its reach and effectiveness.”

This is the second round of grants under Jobs to Careers, a four-year, $15.8 million national initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in collaboration with the Hitachi Foundation and the US Department of Labor. The program encourages partnerships among employers, educational institutions, and other organizations to improve training and advancement opportunities for their frontline workers. Workers who may benefit include medical assistants, health educators, laboratory technicians, home health aides, substance abuse counselors, and dietary aides.

The partnership organizations are working to implement long-term systems changes and test new models of work-based learning–an approach to adult education that emphasizes the employee as learner, and the work process itself as a source of learning. Boston-based Jobs for the Future serves as the Jobs to Careers National Program Office.

“This opportunity for East Boston Neighborhood Health Center’s entry-level workers to obtain new skills and credentials signifies a quantum leap in the improvement of health care for all. Bunker Hill Community College is honored to be a partner in this initiative that will establish a legacy of opportunity and quality for years to come,” said Mary Fifield, President, Bunker Hill Community College.

This project is among eight selected nationwide out of two hundred applicants. The eight projects will be implemented in diverse settings, including hospitals, long-term care facilities, and community and behavioral health centers in cities and remote villages. The new grants bring the total number of Jobs to Careers projects to seventeen. A full list of all projects and further information about Jobs to Careers are available at www.jobs2careers.org.

The East Boston Neighborhood Health Center (EBNHC) has been a vital part of the community for over 35 years, providing easily accessible, high-quality health care to all who live and work in East Boston and the surrounding communities. EBNHC provides 300,000 patient visits per year—more than any other ambulatory care center in New England. Established in 2005, the Education & Training Institute of EBNHC is a state-of-the-art training facility complete with a computer lab, mock patient rooms, and conference and training rooms. This facility hosts various trainings for employees and is a satellite campus of Bunker Hill Community College.

Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is the higher education institution providing curricula and instruction onsite at the Education & Training Institute. BHCC is the largest college in the commonwealth’s community college system, enrolling more than 8,800 students in day, evening, weekend, and distance-learning courses and degree/certificate programs that prepare students for successful employment and transfer to four-year universities. BHCC’s Allied Health Department offers certificate programs that train both fluent and limited-English students for a variety of positions in the health care field.

Jewish Vocational Services (JVS) is a community-based organization with over 60 years of experience in workforce development. JVS delivers contextualized adult basic education, ESOL, career coaching and college preparation services. JVS has extensive experience in career ladder initiatives on the federal, state, and local levels.

World Education is an educational partner who will guide the development of competencies for each of the EBNHC job categories engaged in this project. With over 50 years of experience in adult literacy, adult basic skills education, community and professional development, World Education brings expertise in curriculum development, program design, and training and education programs.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful, and timely change. For more than 35 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make a difference in your lifetime.

The Hitachi Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, independent, philanthropic organization established to enhance the well-being of economically isolated people in the United States. The Foundation systematically invests in path-breaking practices for use by business and nonprofit organizations to mutually address community problems. These practices alleviate conditions that perpetuate poverty and also help to strengthen business.