- Program Education
- Program Area Expanding Economic Opportunity
- Grant Amount $200,000
- Grant Period January 1, 2003–June 30, 2004
- Location Oak Park, MI, United States
- Geographic Focus Detroit
About this grant
The Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) Training Institute was established in 1998 as a training replication model of Cooperative Home Care Associates in the Bronx, New York, in response to high turnover rates in the home health care industry in Southeast Michigan. The goal of the training institute was to promote systemic change in the quality of paraprofessional home care services received by Detroit area residents; and in the way low-income Detroit area residents, particularly women transitioning from welfare to work, were recruited, trained and supported to become paraprofessional home care workers.Multiyear funding will enable the institute to train 100 low-income women per year with 65 percent being placed with VNA Home Support Services; 15 percent being placed in external positions with firms that have a contractual relationship with VNA Home Support Services; 10 percent being placed with employers who sponsored their enrollment; and 10 percent being placed with firms seeking quality new employees.Since its establishment, the institute has trained 272 and employed 213 low-income individuals as high-quality, home health aide paraprofessionals.