Funding to expand Behavioral Health Education and Training in King County
The Training Fund has been awarded $4.8 million to expand our Behavioral apprenticeship pathway programs and strengthen the local behavioral health workforce.
The Training Fund is excited to announce funding awarded through King County to: (a) grow and strengthen the local behavioral health workforce through our behavioral health apprenticeships, and (b) advance behavioral health awareness, education, and training among local communities.Under the Crisis Care Centers Initiative (approved by voters in 2023), these efforts will address the dire need for skilled and diverse behavioral health workers to serve local King County communities.
With King County’s financial support, we are proud and excited to provide this region’s behavioral health caregivers with unparalleled and much-deserved career growth opportunities.
Laura Hopkins
Executive Director, the Training Fund
This funding is part of King County’s $12 million investment to help behavioral health providers support, retain, and recruit employees, and also strengthen the local workforce. Importantly, it includes an additional $4.8 million specifically to expand the Training Fund’s Behavioral Health apprenticeships and other training pathway programs.These earn-while-you-learn apprenticeships have registered over 198 apprentices across three behavioral health career pathways: Certified Peer Counselor, Behavioral Health Technician, and Substance Use Disorder Professionals.
Training Fund Executive Director, Laura Hopkins, underscores the value and importance of these programs to meet existing community needs: “With King County’s financial support, we are proud and excited to provide this region’s behavioral health caregivers with unparalleled and much-deserved career growth opportunities.”
Tyrone Powell completed the SUDP behavioral health apprenticeship and is currently employed at Sea Mar Community Health Centers.
“I gained the competency and the confidence to address each and every community member with the understanding, the empathy and all of the things allowing them to know they’re sitting in front of someone who they matter and count to.”
Tyrone Powell
SUDP apprentice graduate,Sea Mar Community Health Center, Seattle
Speaking to the overarching goals and vision of this program, Melody McKee, Director of Behavioral Health Strategy at the Training Fund, says:
“Our vision includes programs and strategies that holistically tackle recruitment, retention, and advancement, aiming not only to close workforce gaps but also to establish long-term, sustainable career pathways for individuals in the field.”
Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 23, 2023
CONTACT: Mary Grace Antony, Director of Communications & Community Relations SEIU Healthcare 1199NW Multi-Employer Training & Education Fund |425-919-7365
15 Years of Advancing Healthcare Careers, Creating Career Pathways, and Improving Patient Care across Washington
(Renton, WA): The SEIU Healthcare 1199NW Multi-Employer Training & Education Fund (Training Fund) marks its 15-year anniversary on October 25, 2023. This milestone event celebrates innovative labor/management partnerships that drive workforce solutions, and will bring together union members, healthcare employers, education partners, community-based organizations, and staff. Attendees will include member speakers, representatives from major healthcare employers across Washington, and local dignitaries such as SEIU Healthcare 1199NW President Jane Hopkins, and King County Executive Dow Constantine.
The Training Fund is a labor/management partnership that brings together Washington’s biggest healthcare union and its largest healthcare employers to align on investing in workforce development and community representation. Established in 2008, the Training Fund has expanded beyond programs and services that promote career advancement for healthcare workers, to also implement several healthcare apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, and certified nursing assistant programs. This ground-breaking enterprise leverages the healthcare industry’s greatest strengths – its people and institutions – to collectively keep pace with this rapidly changing, ever expanding and highly complex sector.
The ongoing national healthcare crisis has illuminated the need for:
A qualified, committed, and skilled professional workforce: health needs have skyrocketed as a result of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, and our healthcare systems are struggling to meet this demand. As a result, people are waiting too long to access services.
A diversified workforce: Many patients are unable to receive effective care from healthcare professionals who adequately understand their life experiences, speak their language, or have contextual knowledge of their unique social situations.
The Training Fund’s programs are practical solutions that directly respond to this need. Since 2008, the Training Fund has worked to develop and address the workforce needs of participating employers and to support the career, knowledge, and skill aspirations of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW members. Over recent years, this impact has extended to encompass workforce solutions through policy work, training projects, and education-system reform.
Close to 17,000 Washington State healthcare workers are currently eligible for Training Fund education benefits. As a Labor/Management Taft-Hartley Trust which is funded by collectively-bargained employer contributions, the Training Fund is able to provide services and benefits at no cost to eligible members, including the following:
Funding for Professional Development activities
Career navigation services
Tuition Assistance to cover college and university enrollment costs
Educational support services such as tutoring, laptop and mobile hotspot lending, exam prep, academic skills workshops, language interpretation
Advanced Certification for Environmental Services Technicians
Hospital Employee Education and Training (HEET) programs in partnership with community colleges
The Training Fund’s accomplishments include:
Supporting more than 1,500 healthcare workers annually with Career Counseling services since 2018
more than $23.8 million awarded in federal, state, and private grants
Six Washington State-registered Healthcare Apprenticeships (spanning medical/pharmacy & behavioral health pathways)
106 pre-apprenticeship program participants since 2021
Career Connect Washington‘s Healthcare Sector Leader
167 certified Nursing Assistants have completed our NA-C training program since 2021
408 members have used Tuition Assistance to advance their careers and education in 2023 alone — 63% of them identify as BIPOC
The Training Fund also leads the Health Care Apprenticeship Consortium (HCAC), a partnership created to provide all healthcare employers within Washington State access to the benefits of skilled apprenticeship training for their workforce. The HCAC promotes accessibility to services, builds a pipeline of skilled and diverse candidates, and stabilizes the healthcare workforce through increased employee motivation and retention.
Apprenticeships combine flexible coursework requirements with supervised on-the-job training, and apprentices “earn while they learn.” The HCAC’s innovative programs include the following:
Medical Assistant apprenticeship
Pharmacy Technician apprenticeship
Central Sterile Processing Technician apprenticeship
Behavioral Health apprenticeships: Behavioral Health Technician, Peer Counselor, and Substance Use Disorder Professional
Introduction to Healthcare Apprenticeship Program (IHAP)
Nursing Assistant-Certified (NAC) training program
“Behavioral health care requires a skilled and experienced workforce, and King County is committed to investing in a system that puts workers at the center to best meet the needs of providers, patients, and the region as a whole,” said Dow Constantine, King County Executive. “The Training Fund’s Behavioral Health apprenticeship program is so important, and King County is pleased to fund this collaborative approach that is advancing healthcare careers and building a workforce that will strengthen and enhance the behavioral health system overall. It is amazing to see the impacts of the last 15 years and to hear inspiring stories of these apprentices and their mentors.”
“As we celebrate 15 years, the Training Fund is increasingly a go-to partner for healthcare workforce development and solutions across Washington and the region,” said Laura Hopkins, Executive Director, SEIU Healthcare 1199NW Multi-Employer Training & Education Fund. “We are proud of our accomplishments and of the many productive cross-sector partnerships that have brought them to fruition.”
“It’s really important for everyone who works in healthcare to be able to have a career pathway. That’s what the Training Fund does for people. The Training Fund can change people’s lives,” said Jane Hopkins, President, SEIU Healthcare 1199NW and Board of Trustees Co-Chair for the Training Fund. “The Training Fund meets the needs of all of our communities—including low-income and communities of color. We are proud of the Training Fund’s 15 years of creating career pathways that enable caregivers to reflect the populations they serve and provide equitable access to meaningful work.”
“We need healthcare workers desperately. The Training Fund not only helps with recruitment, but also with retention of workers. As we mark 15 years, the breadth of programs and services available to Training Fund members and participants continues to impact the lives of thousands of healthcare workers and, by extension, the care that their patients receive,” said Renee Rasilyer-Bomers, Chief Nursing Officer for Providence-Swedish and Board of Trustees Chair for the Training Fund. “At Providence-Swedish, we’re proud to have worked with the Training Fund on several innovative programs, including the Advanced Certification for EVS Technicians and the Culinary Pathway Program.”
The multi-employer, labor-management partnership model allows the Training Fund to attract significant grant dollars to expand services for its members and the broader community. The Training Fund has received funding through multiple federal, state, and private grants, including more than $23.8 million in grant funding. We truly appreciate this important support from our funding partners. Special thanks to the following funders:
State of Washington Department of Labor & Industries
U.S. Department of Labor’s Healthcare Career Advancement Program Closing the Skills Gap Grant
King County American Rescue Plan Act Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Grant
SEIU Healthcare 1199NW Multi-Employer Training & Education Fund is a nonprofit, labor-management partnership between 16 hospital employers across seven healthcare systems and the largest healthcare union in Washington State.
The Training Fund supports innovative training, education, and career development for healthcare workers that maximizes their talents, proactively meets industry needs, and ensures high-quality patient care through a diverse and skilled healthcare workforce.
Grant to fund regional health care career opportunities
SEATTLE, WA — Kaiser Permanente Washington has announced more than $750,000 in funding for the Service Employees International Union Healthcare 1199NW Multi-Employer Training and Education Fund. The Training Fund also works with employers, unions, and government agencies as the Health Care Apprenticeship Consortium to support health care career pathway programs. These programs match the diversity of our Washington communities and bring underrepresented and economically disadvantaged individuals into health care occupations. This work helps to alleviate ongoing staffing shortages in hospitals and health care facilities.
Funding from Kaiser Permanente will expand and enhance 2 regional career pathways to prepare people from various racial and ethnic backgrounds and other underserved communities for careers in health care. The effort is in partnership with the Seattle Jobs Initiative. The programs will create access to entry-level occupations with support to advance a career pathway of the participant’s choosing, while also promoting equity, advancement, and livable wages.
“We continue to see ongoing demand for health care workers across the state to address increasing care needs,” said Jocelynne McAdory, vice president of human resources and community health at Kaiser Permanente Washington. “Health care jobs are critically important for the health of our community, and these career-connected pathways and learning experiences will help expand diversity and the skilled pool of health care talent in Washington.”
The grant from Kaiser Permanente includes funds for the Training Fund to embed financial literacy and coaching into their program support offerings. This is intended to facilitate upward mobility and financial security for participants.
Within 3 years, the provided funding will support 5 health care worker cohorts that will move through Introduction to Healthcare Employment and Apprenticeship Programs. These are health care exploration and apprenticeship preparatory programs that provide certified nursing assistant certification, health care basic skills, and professional development experiences, in alignment with career pathways like apprenticeships.
The funding will also support 13 additional cohorts through the Advanced Certification for Environmental Services Technicians certificate program. This program enables individuals currently working in lower wage and entry-level health care roles opportunities to develop their skills, promotes quality patient care, and establishes a path to career advancement and possible wage gains.
“We are very excited and grateful for Kaiser Permanente’s partnership in helping to diversify and support community members entering into health care,” said Laura Hopkins, executive director at the Training Fund. “Their support will make a big difference in the health care sector.”
The Training Fund, based in Renton, is a labor-management partnership that supports innovative training, education, and career development for health care workers and health care employers, including at Kaiser Permanente. The Training Fund maximizes employee talents, proactively meets industry needs, and ensures high-quality patient care through a diverse and skilled health care workforce. The Health Care Apprenticeship Consortium is a partnership created to provide all health care employers within Washington state access to the benefits of skilled apprenticeship training for their workforce.
In addition to Kaiser Permanente, the Training Fund also serves health care employers and health care employees at UW Medicine, MultiCare, Swedish Medical Center, and Virginia Mason Franciscan Health facilities, among others.
About SEIU Healthcare 1199NW Multi-Employer Training and Education Fund
The SEIU Healthcare 1199NW Multi-Employer Training and Education Fund (Training Fund) is a non-profit 501(c)3 labor-management partnership founded in 2009. We are dedicated to innovative training, education, and career development for healthcare workers that maximizes their talents, proactively meets industry needs, and ensures high-quality patient care through a diverse and skilled healthcare workforce. The Health Care Apprenticeship Consortium (HCAC) is a multi-union and multi-employer Washington State-registered Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee, and is administered and sponsored by the Training Fund with a wide range of partners, open to all Washington healthcare employers.
About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente has a mission to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 12.6 million members in 8 states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal Permanente Medical Group physicians, specialists, and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery, and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education, and the support of community health.
Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 4, 2022
CONTACT:
Mary Grace Antony, Director of Communications & Community Relations
Health Care Apprenticeship Consortium | 425-919-7365
NEW BEHAVIORAL HEALTH APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM MEETS URGENT NEED FOR VITAL SERVICES
(Seattle, WA): This fall, the Health Care Apprenticeship Consortium (HCAC) is launching a new Behavioral Health Apprenticeship program to meet the urgent statewide need for vital behavioral healthcare services.
According to data from Mental Health America’s 2021 report, more than 22% of adults in Washington state reported having some kind of mental illness, and a quarter of them reported not being able to access behavioral health care.
The statewide and national behavioral healthcare crisis has accentuated the need for:
An adequate, qualified, committed, and skilled professional workforce: Behavioral health needs have skyrocketed as a result of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, and our healthcare systems are struggling to meet this demand. As a result, people are waiting too long to access services.
A diverse workforce: Many people don’t receive effective care from healthcare professionals who do not share or understand their life experiences, speak their language, or have contextual knowledge of their unique lived experiences.
The Behavioral Healthcare Apprenticeship program is a practical solution directly responding to these needs. This Washington state-registered apprenticeship program is building a pathway to increase the number of trained, skilled, and diverse professionals who will grow and stabilize the behavioral health workforce.
This innovative apprenticeship program combines flexible educational coursework requirements with supervised on-the-job training and provides financial incentives to employers that agree to early participation. It currently offers three career pathways:
Behavioral Health Technician: One-year program
Peer Counselor: One-year program
Substance Use Disorder Professional: Two-year program
“The need for behavioral health services has never been greater, but there is a severe shortage of qualified behavioral health professionals to meet that need,” says Dow Constantine, King County Executive. “These apprentices are the first cohort in a program to increase wages and train and retain new workers to care for our community. This innovative program will transform our community by expanding opportunities, particularly in communities of color. I’m grateful that King County was able to provide funding for this important project and pleased to partner with so many governments and organizations to make it possible.”
“The behavioral healthcare sector has an urgent need for more staff and this apprenticeship program is the workforce solution,” says Laura Hopkins, Executive Director, SEIU Healthcare 1199NW Multi-Employer Training & Education Fund, which sponsors the HCAC. “Apprenticeships are an accessible pathway into healthcare because apprentices earn while they learn. And employers get a huge return on their investment, starting immediately and growing over time. We’re thrilled to work with our partners on this exciting program.”
“Recruiting is a constant challenge for community safety net agencies like Comprehensive Life Resources,” says Kim Zacher, CEO of Comprehensive Life Resources. “Behavioral Health apprenticeships would give us one more tool to build a behavioral health workforce that has been taken for granted and overlooked for too long. There are so many reasons that traditional college education, required for many behavioral health roles, may not be feasible for someone. A paid apprenticeship that combines on-the-job learning with relevant coursework opens the door for a more diverse group of people to enter the behavioral health field. We see a lot of opportunity within our own workforce and within our client base to take advantage of this program.”
“MERIT Resource Services is grateful for the opportunity to build our substance use disorder treatment workforce. We need licensed substance use disorder professionals and certified peer counselors to expand our great work with individuals and families experiencing alcohol and other drug problems. Providing individuals in substance use disorder treatment the recovery capital needed to gain remission and improve their quality of life is rewarding work,” says Shereen Hunt, Executive Director of MERIT Resource Services.
“The COVID pandemic has exposed the tremendous need for behavioral health services for our communities,” says Diane Sosne, former President, SEIU Healthcare 1199NW. “The educational approach of this apprenticeship program meets the needs of all of our communities—including low income and communities of color. The ‘earn while you learn’ model provides a unique career pathway that enables caregivers to reflect the populations they serve and provide equitable access to meaningful work. We are proud to help launch our state’s innovative Behavioral Health Apprenticeship program.”
“Even before the pandemic, it was very clear that the workforce availability was declining. Then you add the pandemic and it becomes apparent that grassroot efforts are needed now more than even. This model allows members of BIPOC communities the opportunity to enter this industry, which is sometimes perceived as unattainable and/or unaffordable. This program will open so many doors. It will allow us to better serve our communities,” says Charlotte Jones, VP and Chief People & Diversity Inclusion Officer, Sound Health.
“The lack of an adequate behavioral health workforce comes with significant consequences. It means people seeking behavioral health services cannot access the care they need when they need it,” says Melody McKee, Program Director for the Behavioral Health Training, Workforce and Policy Innovation Center at Harborview Medical Center – Behavioral Health Institute. “We can, and must, drive innovation that broadens the pathways into the behavioral health field. The apprenticeship program does that, and the ‘earn while you learn’ foundation of apprenticeships fosters equitable access into a profession that desperately needs more workers.”
Special thanks to the Ballmer Group and King County for their innovative and visionary support of this program, and to the UW Medicine – Harborview Behavioral Health Institute for their partnership on this project. The HCAC would also like to thank the following additional funders:
City of Seattle Office of Economic Development
King County
State of Washington Department of Labor & Industries
S. Department of Labor’s Healthcare Career Advancement Program Closing the Skills Gap Grant
This project is being supported, in whole or in part, by federal award number SLFRP0152, awarded to King County, Washington by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
The Health Care Apprenticeship Consortium is a multi-union and multi-employer Washington State-registered Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee. We are open to all healthcare employers in Washington.
The Health Care Apprenticeship Consortium is sponsored by SEIU Healthcare 1199NW Multi-Employer Training and Education Fund. The Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee membership includes partners from healthcare employers, labor unions, and Washington State.
Our vision is to build a state-wide healthcare educational pathway through multiple apprenticeship opportunities, that is used by healthcare employers across the state and promotes accessibility, retention, and stability within the healthcare workforce.
