April 14, 2004 — The Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI) has been awarded a grant of up to $4 million over the next four years by The Atlantic Philanthropies. The board of trustees of The Atlantic Philanthropies voted to award the money, the largest single grant PHI has ever received, on March 8. “Direct-care workers are the face, hands, and voice of care and support for millions of our nation’s elderly and those living with disabilities,” says PHI President Steven L. Dawson. “We are very pleased that this generous grant by The Atlantic Philanthropies acknowledges the crucial link between quality care and quality jobs.”

The grant, which requires PHI to raise matching funds of at least $2.5 million over the next four years, will enable the organization to field a range of new “quality jobs/quality care” initiatives on behalf of direct-care workers across the country, expanding from the 10 states where it currently has a significant presence into 15 by 2007. It will support an expansion of PHI’s national policy work and the continued growth of its National Clearinghouse on the Direct Care Workforce, the nation’s primary source of policy and practice information about the direct-care workforce. And it will help PHI add managerial, administrative, and program staff, growing from 21 to approximately 33 staff over the next four years.“

Until PHI emerged as a champion for change, there was not a significant force addressing the needs and capacities of the workers who spend the most time with residents in long-term care settings,” says Laura Robbins, Program Officer for The Atlantic Philanthropies. “PHI’s work is critically important if our society is to provide quality care to older adults and others in need of chronic care.”

The Atlantic Philanthropies (www.atlanticphilanthropies.org) has four “program fields”—aging, disadvantaged children and youth, health of populations, and reconciliation and human rights. Atlantic also co-funds, with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the national Better Jobs Better Care demonstration initiative, for which PHI serves as the national technical assistance office.