Porchlight VNA/Home Care, STCC Partner on Home-care Worker Training

CHICOPEE — Porchlight VNA/Home Care has partnered with Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) under the Training and Workforce Options (TWO) collaborative with Holyoke Community College (HCC) on the state Department of Higher Education’s Nursing and Allied Health Grant Initiative: Direct Care Workforce.

Porchlight CEO Holly Chaffee will lead the initiative, along with STCC’s Vice President of Foundation and Workforce Training Robert LePage, to ensure Greater Springfield has a well-prepared healthcare workforce. The grant will be in effect from Nov. 2, 2015 to Dec. 30, 2016.

The grant will address the area’s need to recruit, train, and retain entry-level home-care providers, which is a consistent economic hardship for home-care agencies. Porchlight will receive up-to-date training for its workers through the grant at no cost while contributing in-kind resources and employee paid leave time. In return, Porchlight commits to filling the designated number of training slots available and providing data to support grant objectives for evaluation purposes. The two entities will also meet regularly to plan training and curriculum details and discuss the grant’s performance.