Introduction

We hope that you will use this information as a guide for working with state and local workforce entities to direct new federal employment and training dollars toward the direct-care workforce. Unprecedented levels of funding in our nation’s workforce investment system make this an exciting time for direct-care worker advocates and stakeholders.

While some of the guidelines regarding the ARRA/WIA funds have yet to be determined, don’t let this fact deter you from submitting proposals. ARRA funds must be expended no later than June 30, 2011. WIA Program Year 2009 funds are available for obligation in two parts: on July 1, 2009 and October 1, 2009.

So, get moving quickly! The federal government has made the rapid obligation and subsequent distribution of these workforce funds a high priority. And state and local workforce entities are seeking innovative training ideas, especially in the health care sector and particularly related to entry-level employment or career pathways for low-income individuals.

Step 1: Familiarize yourself with your state’s ARRA/WIA allotments

See section 1 to learn more about the various funding streams the federal government is using to allocate the employment and training dollars. For information on how much money your state will receive through 2009 ARRA and WIA appropriations, see section 2. Further background on the nation’s workforce investment system is provided in section 8.

While states are expected to spend their WIA Program Year 2009 funds concurrently with Recovery Act funding, to the extent that the two funding streams are kept separate by your state, different requirements may apply regarding when funds must be obligated and expended. Consult your state or local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) for guidance on whether you should apply for a specific set of funds or if they will determine the most appropriate funding stream once they have accepted your proposal.

Step 2: Identify relevant state and local stakeholder coalitions and consider creating/joining collaborative ventures

If you are not currently a member of, or aware of a direct-care worker coalition, consider identifying training partners and employers/ providers in order to create a stakeholder group. Start by identifying and talking to long-term care or home- and community-based providers, or getting in touch with your state’s provider associations, worker associations, community and technical colleges and other existing training providers, and relevant labor unions. These organizations might have projects or ideas already under development, and might welcome new partners. If you cannot identify any projects that are currently underway, schedule meetings with potential stakeholders to determine if forming a partnership to access employment and training dollars for direct-care workers could be mutually advantageous.

If you are part of a stakeholder group, work with your partners to get in touch with your local WIBs or your state Department of Labor to understand the approach your state is using to make funding decisions for ARRA/WIA proposals. Staff from your state’s workforce investment system will be key decision-makers about how ARRA/WIA employment and training resources are spent. More information on how to connect to your state’s workforce system is available from the National Association of Workforce Boards.

Sectoral initiatives are worth considering, and are likely to be attractive to state WIBs and Departments of Labor that are seeking an investment or economic development strategy for using public workforce dollars. Sectoral initiatives refer to efforts that take a systemic or regional approach to achieving an improved service delivery system for long-term care–for example, by creating an articulated training system that better meets the training requirements of employers while creating higher quality jobs for workers. They may involve a multi-employer partnership, or alternatively a stakeholder group that brings together a range of entities such as employers, provider associations, unions, education and training providers, consumer representatives and direct-care worker advocates.

Step 3: Develop your proposal ideas and identify target workers

Proposals can be designed to recruit and train dislocated/unemployed workers from other industries, or they can help entry-level workers move into direct-care jobs. In addition, they can help incumbent (already employed) workers acquire additional training and skills to advance to higher paying jobs. (For definitions of these terms, see section 8.)

PHI’s experience is that effective, long-lasting solutions to alleviating workforce shortages and instability in long-term care require going beyond doing “more of the same.” Instead, they require addressing underlying aspects of industry practice and job structure that cause high rates of turnover and vacancy, and that do not support care quality. Section 5 provides our suggestions for proposal ideas that have the potential to play an important role in re-shaping the future structure and quality of direct-care jobs.

The proposal ideas are arranged by six “strategic areas”:

• Recruitment and pre-employment training
• “Core curriculum” approaches
• Apprenticeship approaches
• Career paths and advancement approaches
• Job redesign for chronic care management
• Setting-based or sectoral approaches

Step 4: Gather and use data to make the case for investing in direct-care jobs

Since competition for ARRA/WIA resources will be stiff, it’s important to establish the significance of direct-care jobs to your state’s overall economic recovery efforts. Consistent with the federal priorities established for the ARRA/WIA resources, direct-care jobs can provide an entry-point into the labor market for hundreds of thousands of young people, dislocated workers and low-income individuals. Training resources can also be used to create better training for direct-care workers, career advancement opportunities, and strengthened training infrastructure.

Historically, however, state workforce investment and department of labor actors often have been reluctant to invest public dollars in direct-care jobs. The rationale has been that these jobs pay relatively low wages, offer few benefits, and have few if any advancement opportunities.

But today a compelling case can be made for investing in direct-care jobs, given the growth projections for these jobs both nationally and at the state level, the strong contribution of eldercare/disability services to economic growth in virtually all states, and the vital role that direct-care jobs can play in stabilizing low-income neighborhoods around the country.

For arguments that can be made to make the case for investing in direct-care workers, see section 4. We recommend tailoring these arguments to your state by gathering the following pieces of data:

• The number of direct-care workers currently employed in your state
• Job growth projections of direct-care workers in your state
• Current wages for direct-care workers in your state
• Unemployment rates in your state or region

Links to websites where you can access this data can be found in section 7. Note that the key Standard Occupational Codes (SOC) used by both the federal and state government for collecting data on direct-care workers are: SOC 31-3011 for Home Health Aides, SOC 31-3012 for Nursing Aides, Orderlies and Attendants, and SOC 39-9021 for Personal and Home Care Aides.

For examples of national facts and figures about the importance of direct-care jobs, see PHI Facts1 (pdf) and PHI Facts2 (pdf). For examples of use of state-level data, see MI State Fact Sheet (pdf) and VT State Fact Sheet (pdf).

Step 5: Follow up with relevant WIBs (state and local) and your state Department of Labor

While developing your proposals, keep in touch with your state and local WIB contacts. Other agencies involved in the decision-making process will likely be the State Department of Labor, the State Department of Workforce Development (if your state has one), the Department of Commerce or Economic Development, the Department of Social Services, the Department of Education, the Labor Committees of your state legislature and localities and their elected bodies. If you or members of your partnership have contacts within these key government entities, let them know about your group’s ideas as soon as possible.

Pay attention to ARRA/WIA-related federal websites as well as your state Department of Labor websites through the links provided in section 7. Announcements will be posted regularly about funding opportunities, requests for proposals, and funded proposals.