General Purposes

About this grant

This grant will enable the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute to continue serving as a national intermediary for the direct-care workforce. The institute has played a significant role in defining and promoting the direct relationship between quality jobs and quality care for more than a decade, resulting in a comprehensive health-care sector workforce strategy.Funding will enable the institute to pursue goals that include implementing a national apprenticeship training model for home health aides; expanding its current relationship with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by providing technical assistance to as many as 10 organizations receiving workforce development grants for direct-care workers; fielding its Health Care for Health Care Workers policy initiative and implementing the project within at least three states – Maine, Michigan and Pennsylvania; convening a national conference; and securing a direct presence within at least 11 key states.Accomplishments during the past year included providing technical assistance to direct-care worker employers interested in enhancing the quality of direct-care jobs in New York City and New England; conducting a Home Care Cooperative Conference Call Series; creating a set of guidebooks outlining recruitment, training and supervisory practices for home care workers; launching the Health Care for Health Care Workers campaign; sustaining the Direct Care Alliance; and working with 15 states to increase the opportunities for improving the pay and working conditions of direct-care workers.