Grant to Train Health Workers
Jul. 12–PRESQUE ISLE — The Workforce Investment Board, which serves Aroostook and Washington counties, has received a $250,000 grant to provide training for workers in organizations that provide health care.
The funds will be used to increase the numbers of workers by providing training. A study has shown that demand for employees has become critical, according to Patricia Boucher, executive director of Local Area 1 of the WIB.
The research was done over the last four years by the two-county collaborative group that includes hospitals, health services organizations, colleges and universities, adult education programs, and low income and economic development organizations.
“This is money to help train people out of high school, the unemployed or the under-employed,” Boucher said Monday. “There is money there to help trained workers to get more training.
“It is also a goal of the program to assist in stemming the out-migration of talent from Aroostook and Washington counties,” she said. “It is a one-to-one matching grant with provider organizations providing the local share.”
Boucher praised the effort and “intervention project” developed by members of the Healthcare Provider Organizations, which have pooled their efforts.
She explained that the effort is to try to fill vacancies in the health care field. It could be the providing of funds to assist a high school graduate to go to school, or to assist a person in the health care field to enhance knowledge or upgrade skills.
Boucher said there is a dire need for nurses, laboratory technicians, surgical technicians, social workers and behavioral counselors throughout the two counties.
She said Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and Rep. Michael Michaud were instrumental in getting the funds for the local program.
The funds were received July 1.
Boucher said her office already has applications for money from the Northern Maine Medical Center at Fort Kent, Borderview Nursing Home at Van Buren, Houlton Regional Hospital and the Calais Regional Hospital.
Applications must come from health care providing agencies, such as hospitals, nursing homes and home health care agencies. The agencies determine eligibility of applicants, arrange for training, and pay the one-to-one match for the funds.
One of the goals is to increase the wage-earning capacity of those already in the field by 25 percent. The money also will be used to train people who wish to enter health care field.
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