On September 16, 2020 MassHire Greater New Bedford Workforce Board was awarded the Senator Kenneth J. Donnelly Workforce Success Grant for Healthcare Workforce Hubs.
MassHire Greater New Bedford Workforce Board will lead the grant efforts along with MassHire Southeast Region 6 partners from MassHire Bristol, MassHire Greater Brockton, and MassHire South Shore Workforce Boards.
MassHire Greater New Bedford Workforce Board is also participating as a partner in a separate Healthcare Workforce Hubs grant awarded to the MassHire Cape Cod and Islands Workforce Board who will lead in their region. This will potentially allow MassHire Greater New Bedford Career Center clients who reside in areas close to the Cape (such as Marion or Wareham) access to training seats developed for that region.
The grant will be allocated in two phases, with the first lasting up to 6 months and focused on planning and capacity analysis. This will be followed by an implementation phase of up to 2.5 years for plans developed in Phase 1 that meet approval.
The grant is intended to address long-standing healthcare industry training needs as well as emerging needs due to COVID-19. The initiative’s goals as stated in the grant request for proposal are, “The Healthcare Workforce Hub Initiative is designed to support regional coordination that results in additional training and placement/advancement program capacity and to fund capacity building and planning efforts to ensure workforce system-wide alignment.”
MassHire Greater New Bedford Workforce Board and our partners have already conducted initial outreach and surveys with some area healthcare, community based, and educational organizations for the grant proposal request.
We are also seeking to engage additional interested healthcare related organizations from MassHire Southeast Region 6 in the Phase 1 grant planning. Please call Jacqueline Sylvia at 508.979.1504 extension 116 or send an email to jacqueline@masshiregreaternewbedford.com to request more information about participating as a grant planning partner. Feel free to pass along this information to parties that you think may have an interest. We are gearing up to begin efforts in October with our MassHire Region 6 Workforce Board partners and conduct additional surveys and meetings with healthcare community partners later this fall.
