A partnership with a local workforce board has helped a Massachusetts nursing home secure a $125,000 grant to bolster its workforce pipeline.
The funding maneuver is an example of how facilities can collaborate with state and local governments on measures that provide much-needed support, rather than just increased oversight and red tape, facility leaders point out.
The funding will be provided through a grant from the Cape and Islands Workforce Board and is part of a larger, $16.3 million effort to create nearly 2,000 healthcare jobs across the state. Liberty Commons of North Chatham, MA, is the only nursing home in the state to receive funding thus far.
Building a consistent relationship with the workforce board was key to why Liberty Commons was singled out for the funding, according to Bill Bogdanovich, president and CEO of Broad Reach Healthcare, which owns Liberty Commons.
“We have worked with this Cape and Islands Workforce Board… in the past, and as we were working together on strategic planning for 2024-25, we put forward some proposals and some of them stuck,” Bogdanovich told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Monday.
The partnership between Broad Reach and the board goes back two decades, with several workforce programs executed together over the years, Bogdanovich explained.
Grant gives training boost
The new grant will directly fund the hiring of 10 new certified nursing assistants, according to Liberty Commons Administrator Jason Lavallee.
“That’s 10 more CNAs that we might not have without this program,” Lavallee said. “The population we serve needs our help, and it’s only achieved through hard work, consistent training, and working together to create great outcomes.”
But the effects of the funding will be felt throughout the facility’s workforce pipelines, Bogdanovich told McKnight’s.
For example, a CNA apprenticeship program developed in partnership with the workforce board last year will now have funding refreshed through 2025. Funds also will go toward promoting existing CNAs to licensed practical nurse positions through a partnered regional technical school’s certification program.
Precise details about the timeline and funding numbers will be announced March 21, Bogdanovich noted. He also said that he was aware of similar healthcare funding efforts in the works in Massachusetts, but wasn’t sure where they presently stood.
He told McKnight’s he’d be excited to see similar collaborations and grant funding initiatives take place in nursing homes across the country.
“I very much see this as a more effective way to bolster [the workforce] and bring the resources to the bedside that we need,” he said. “It’s much more effective than enforcement and more red tape at the end of the day.”
