The Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College Center for Research and Innovation Custom College recently received a grant to develop a custom staff training curriculum and business strategies program to assist a group of facilities providing a variety of health care services in Walker.
The $25,921 Minnesota Job Skills Partnership Program grant was awarded to the CRICC by the Department of Employment and Economic Development in response to a grant submission from Kerry Ross, CRICC training coordinator, who will serve as the grant’s project manager.
The Walker facilities include May Creek Lodge, Stille Havn Hus, Shingobee Island Lodge and Summit House which, as a group, provide a mixture of respite and residential care for chronic, persistently mentally ill and Alzheimer’s afflicted seniors as well as residential care for developmentally disabled adults. The facilities currently serve about 62 clients and the business plans to add 20 more rooms for assisted-care residential clients later this year.
Currently, CNA training is not offered regularly in the Leech Lake area which contributes to an increasingly unfulfilled demand for trained caregivers.
“The competition for home health aides, certified nurse aides and residential caregivers providing services in the customer’s home is fierce and, oftentimes, pay more than those employed at residential facilities,” wrote Ross in her application. “Our goal is to provide the basic training required to be employed at a residential facility as well as identifying a career path for professional growth.”
Grant activities include a multi-faceted approach to meet the needs of these health care facilities through the development of a comprehensive training program designed to encourage professional and organizational growth; the development of a web based curriculum to further develop staff skills and enhance the quality of care provided to residents; and assisting the organizations to identify and implement business strategies that enhance their competitive advantage, develop a high-performance work culture and link employee wages with profits.
The businesses, owned by Ann Noland and her husband, Jim Rogen, currently employ about 125 people.
“We recognize our employees as our greatest assets and want to provide ongoing education and advanced planning which will help them to advance in pay and positions in our facilities,” said Noland. “We wanted assistance in developing ways that employees can add to their skills and knowledge without requiring driving to larger cities or taking time away from their families … We value and encourage online learning and will provide computer access to our staff.”
The state Job Skills Partnership Program was developed to act as a catalyst between business and education in developing cooperative training projects that provide training for new jobs or retrain existing employees. Its grants are awarded to educational institutions with businesses as partners and require matching funds from the involved businesses or other sources. Nolan said her businesses will provide much of the match by compensating their employees for both developing and participating in the new educational programs.
The CRICC is an off campus facility, located at 3801 Bemidji Avenue North, operated by Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College and designed to increase collaboration between the University, the College, business and industry and other sectors of the region. The outreach resources offered provide greater variety and easier access to customized training and business services. In addition it provides a one-stop-shop, linking external organizations to the region’s higher education knowledge base.
For more information, contact Kerry Ross at the Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College Center for Research and Innovation, Bemidji State University, 1500 Birchmont Drive NE, Bemidji, MN 56601 (218-755-4900; or toll free, 1-888-738-3224).