National Skills Summit

National Skills Summit
Innovative Initiatives: Health Care and Child Care

Goodwill Industries: Competency Evaluated Nurses Assistant Program

The Challenge:

To entice a pool of non-traditional workers, including teens with disabilities or special needs, into the Grand Rapids, Michigan, health care industry.

The Solution:

Forge a partnership between local school districts and a non-profit organization to recruit teenagers for careers in health care.

The Partners:

Goodwill Industries of Greater Grand Rapids is a community resource dedicated to helping individuals achieve their fullest potential through employment and rehabilitation services.

Kent Intermediate School District refers junior and senior high-school students with special needs to the Competency Evaluated Nurses Assistant (CENA) program run by Goodwill Industries of Greater Grand Rapids.

The Story:

As a high school student in Grand Rapids, Rachel Idema had difficulty imagining a stable future for herself. However, she was determined to graduate high school with marketable skills that would give her access into a rapidly-growing industry, so she worked with a school counselor to enroll in Goodwill Industry's Competency Evaluated Nurses Assistant program. Rachel received on-site training at the Porter Hills Presbyterian Village. Her training combined classroom instruction, practice sessions on mannequins, and repeated sessions working with the facility's residents. Although state certification requires only 75 hours of training, Rachel completed over 450 hours with CENA. Today, Rachel is a certified nurse assistant in the same nursing facility at which she trained, providing her clients with qualified, compassionate, and personal care.

CENA participants like Rachel are junior and senior high-school students referred by the Kent Intermediate School District. By introducing possible careers to teenagers, Goodwill hopes to entice a whole new generation to the health care field. To date, 56 students have completed the program that began four years ago.

A Model of Innovation:

Goodwill understands how to reach and inspire under-served populations. Their expectations are high and their training is very personal. Both of these programs provide participants with a dual sense of accomplishment: self sufficiency and the positive knowledge that their work is helping others who need it.

Contacts:

Jim Van Erden
Director of Workforce Development
Goodwill Industries
9200 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20814
(301) 530-6500 Ext. 4500 (p)
(301) 530-1516 (f)