A foundation dedicated to making Northeast Pennsylvania healthier will grant $1.5 million to seven organizations over the next three years to support initiatives aimed at bolstering the region’s health care workforce.
A separate $700,000 scholarship program established by the Northeastern Pennsylvania Health Care Foundation will support the development and retention of nursing professionals.
With the rollout of the foundation’s Careers in Care program, the focus will be on feeding the pipeline of the health care workforce in Lackawanna, Luzerne and Wyoming counties, said Laura Ducceschi, president and CEO of the Scranton Area Community Foundation, which administers the NEPA Health Care Foundation.
She and James Clemente, chairman of the health care foundation board, said that means a strong education component.
“ There just aren’t enough students engaging in health care education early enough,” Ducceschi said. “They aren’t understanding the options that are out there. They aren’t getting enough access to knowledge of possibilities of careers.
“So we really have to infuse and invest more money in health care pipelines at an earlier date.”
The challenge will include removing barriers to diversity and making access available to students from all racial and economic backgrounds, she said. That is something the foundation heard repeatedly during its 30 site visits with health care providers, nonprofit organizations and others during its 2019 regional listening tour.
Clemente said some of the Careers in Care initiatives are expected to have an immediate impact. With others, the foundation is taking a longer view, anticipating they will contribute to a more robust workforce in the future.
The organizations in line for grant funding include:
- Lackawanna College, Scranton, for its three-year plan to enhance the pipeline of local health care professionals and increase the number trained and retained in the region.
- United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Scranton, for its Upward Economic Mobility Program, which partners with Johnson College to offer unemployed and underemployed individuals the opportunity to obtain technical certification as a certified nursing assistant or medical assistant.
- Johnson College, Scranton, to establish a mobile hands-on training laboratory to teach students what it is like to work in the health care field.
- St. Joseph’s Center, Scranton, for direct support professional wage increases.
- Northern Tier Industry & Education Consortium, Dimock, to increase health care career awareness and work-based learning placements for regional high school students.
- Children’s Service Center, Wilkes-Barre, for its scholarship program addressing the lack of racially diverse behavioral health professionals.
- Greater Hazleton Partners in Education, West Hazleton, for its Career Pathways to Health Care program, which promotes learning about health science and medical professions for middle school students with discussions led by health care professionals from the Lehigh Valley Health Network.
The foundation said the Careers in Care nursing scholarship program will be open to students with demonstrated financial need who plan to pursue or who are pursuing nursing and who will practice in Northeast Pennsylvania.
The Scranton Area Community Foundation hopes to have detailed instructions on how students can apply on its online portal by March 1, Ducceschi said.
“These scholarships will provide the much needed financial support to students who may otherwise not have been able to further their education,” Theresa Tulaney, Ph.D., director of nursing and associate professor of practice at Marywood University, said in a statement. “In addition, it will allow students to focus on their education instead of having to work many hours to alleviate difficult financial situations.”
Clemente described the foundation’s three-year funding for Careers in Care as a baseline. The initiative is the foundation’s first into workforce development, and it “had to start with something,” he said.
“If we see it’s working and we see more money is needed, we are certainly going to address that issue,” he said.
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February 08, 2021 at 12:00PM
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NEPA Health Care Foundation rolls out Careers in Care, nursing scholarship program - Wilkes-Barre Citizens Voice
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