Strategic Partnerships, LLC: Successes

Johns Hopkins Health Systems

Johns Hopkins Health Systems faced the challenge of finding, training, and keeping qualified workers in the highly competitive healthcare marketplace. To help address this challenge, Johns Hopkins applied for and received a major $3 million national discretionary grant from the U.S. Department of Labor as part of the President's High-Growth Job Training Initiative. The purposes of the grant were to help identify selected workers from within the existing workforce, and to provide them with additional training and education to enable them to take jobs in rapidly growing occupations within the Johns Hopkins Health Systems. The grant will serve as a national model of how to improve retention and wage rates for these workers, and to provide many of them with credentials that will enable them to continue to advance in health care occupations.

SPLLC provided strategic and technical assistance to Johns Hopkins in support of its grant application.

Verizon

Verizon turned to the public workforce system to expand its hiring of individuals for jobs in the company's call centers across the U.S. As one example, SPLLC and Verizon staff contacted the coordinators of 8 One-Stop Centers (Long Beach, CA; Victorville, CA; Coeur D'Alene, ID; Lakeland, FL; Braintree, MA; Bangor, ME; Altoona, PA, and Scranton, PA) with specific requests for suitable employees for job openings in these locations. The company provided the centers with guidance on skills and qualifications, and provided screening tools to assist with selection of appropriate candidates. The centers used these tools (initial screening, keyboard tests, and structured interviews) to select individuals to refer to Verizon. The company hired more than 100 qualified employees through these partnerships with One-Stops.

SPLLC provided assistance with the design of the program, and helped Verizon in its collaboration with the public workforce system's One-Stop operators.

Hospital Corporation of America

The Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), in partnership with the states of Florida and Texas, was awarded two grants from the U.S. Department of Labor to help solve the national nursing shortage. As one example, HCA's innovative programs have provided rapid retraining in nursing skills to U.S. immigrants who had been trained abroad as doctors. The program took advantage of the advanced training these physicians had already received to shorten the certification process from the typical six-year time frame to only 13 months. To date, more than 120 prospective nurses have entered the program, selected from among more than 1,000 qualified applicants.

SPLLC provided strategic technical and design assistance to HCA as part of its grant application process, and liaison support with the U.S. and state agencies involved.

Toys "R" Us

Toys "R" Us, in partnership with the National Retail Federation, applied for and received from the U.S. Department of Labor a grant for $2.25 million to develop a training program for store managers. Among the purposes of the grant, which was made as a part of the Administration's High Growth Job Training Initiative, was to enable widespread availability and distribution of a unique, state-of-the-art, electronic training program originally developed by Toy "R" Us to new employees in the retail industry. Deployed in collaboration with mall operators, One-Stop Centers, and others, the front-line training program will address information technology, marketing, communications, loss prevention, finance, and merchandising sourcing. The program is expected to reach some 44,000 new retail workers, including cashiers, sales associates, and assistant store managers.

SPLLC provided assistance with the design and development of this program, and supported the partnerships between many organizations involved in the effort.

Jobs for America's Graduates

SPLLC has managed Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG), which has become one of the nation's largest, and most successful national non-profit organizations offering school-to-career programs for high risk youth. Today, JAG oversees a network of 30 JAG state organizations dedicated to delivering workplace competency and leadership development training to 60,000 youth annually in 800 public schools and other sites. The program has achieved remarkable success, enabling more than 90% of its participants to graduate, make successful transitions to meaningful employment and/or postsecondary education.

SPLLC supports this program with a complete array of services that include corporate and foundation fundraising, and advocacy on behalf of the program in the U.S. Congress and in many state legislatures. Other services include the design and management of an Internet-based Data Management System to track program delivery and outcomes, development of curriculum, training, professional development and technical support for state level staff, and the identification and recruitment of a Board of Directors that includes seven sitting governors, several members of Congress, senior executives of Fortune 100 companies and other notable national leaders.