The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded Bridgeport-based The WorkPlace a $14 million grant”” $2.8 million per year for five years ”” to continue to grow its regional Health Care Academy.
Since receiving its first grant in 2011, the academy has served more than 900 low-income and long-term unemployed participants. More than 450 have completed the training for a health care job and more than 80 percent of those graduates have secured training-related jobs.
Another 1,500 will get training through the new grant.
“Our good performance, our policy of continuous improvement and our embrace of innovation were major factors for our success with this competition,” WorkPlace officials said. The academy was created in conjunction with a Health and Human Services competitive grant program.
Joseph Carbone, president and CEO of The WorkPlace, said the fight for initial funding was “the most intense competition I could recall.” He said had the original $5 million grant failed to materialize, the Health Care Academy would have ended in just a few days.
“The health care sector of our economy has consistently expanded even throughout the Great Recession,” Carbone said. “The Health Professions Opportunity Grant was established under the Affordable Healthcare Act of 2009. It enables us to outreach and serve our regional (temporary assistance to needy families) population, lower income individuals and our long-term unemployed for health care careers, not just jobs.
“Our program is structured with progressing steps from entry level to higher wage and credentialed occupations in health care,” he said. “We expect to serve 1,500 folks during this period.”
Carbone credited academy staff, regional hospitals, the state Department of Labor and Connecticut”™s system of community colleges for helping with The WorkPlace”™s mission.
“Huge kudos for our congressional delegation. Sens. Blumenthal and Murphy, Congressmen Himes and DeLauro were unrelenting in their active support for our proposal,” he said. “Their collective stature in DC is nothing less than remarkable.
“On to the task of changing lives, a truly awesome opportunity and we are ready for it,” he said.
