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SU on the Web
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From the Director's Desk November 2011
This has been a very busy year! Stepping Up is very pleased to welcome Melissa Misiaszek to the team. Melissa holds a graduate degree in Psychology; she has experience in human resources, and a winning personality. She will work in southern RI and the Providence metro area with our employer partners, incumbent workers and community residents. You can read more about Melissa elsewhere in this newsletter. Welcome to the family, Melissa, and best wishes from all of us. I am thrilled to announce that Stepping Up has been designated as a Health Care Industry Partner by the Governor's Workforce Board. We are pleased to join Healthcentric Advisors and the Hospital Association of Rhode Island in that role. As an Industry Partner, Stepping Up will be charged with: - Providing information, resources and recommendations to the health care industry. This will include employment and workforce trends, skill and licensing requirements.
- Identifying effective ways of meeting workforce and employer needs, and coordinating existing systems (public workforce system, private sector initiatives and post secondary and institutions higher education), and
- Aligning local work with career pathways work, and elevating local workforce issues to a statewide level for solutions.
As you may know, Rick Brooks has accepted a new position. He has been named Executive Director of the Governor's Workforce Board. In our opinion, the Board made a wise decision in selecting Rick. His education, rich experience and knowledge of workforce development and labor-management will serve him well as Executive Director. His departure will leave an enormous gap. Rick has been has been a driving force in the labor movement. He has been with UNAP for seventeen years, serving as director for much of that time. Rick is also Chairman of the UNAP/Rhode Island Hospital Health Care Education Trust, the parent of Stepping Up. Rick is a founding father of the Trust, Stepping Up, the CEU training program for nurses and allied professionals at Rhode Island Hospital, and was instrumental in introducing a "best practice skills for high-stakes interactions" communications program, called Crucial Conversations, that is being rolled out at Rhode Island Hospital. He also serves on several local and state committees and boards. On a personal note, Rick has not only been my boss, but my guide, my advisor, and my friend. He will be sorely missed. But we at Stepping Up congratulate Rick on his appointment and wish him all the very best in his new position. Thank you, Rick, for all you have done and all you have been to us. Go with our love, our gratitude, and our appreciation. I know it's a bit early, but since this is a quarterly publication, on behalf of all the Stepping Up family, I extend sincere wishes to you for a peaceful and enjoyable holiday season. Aime Brissette
Executive Director |
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23 Participants Graduate from Internships
A lively celebration took place on September 29th in the Gerry House at Rhode Island Hospital. Twenty-three community pipeline graduates were recognized after completing internships at Rhode Island Hospital, Women & Infants Hospital, Bradley Hospital, The Volunteer Office at The Miriam Hospital and Epoch Senior Living.
Students completed Healthcare Career Exploration training at Dorcas Place and The Genesis Center. Speeches included a welcome from Doug MacNeil, Director of Human Resources, Rhode Island Hospital and a keynote address from Paul Heffernan, VP of Human Resources, Women & Infants Hospital. Linda McDonald, President, United Nurses and Allied Professionals and Thomas Deller, Director of Providence Planning and Development both shared their support of the program and congratulated graduates.
Class speakers were Enid Navarro, Richard Zevallos and Melissa Alba. Navarro talked about her experience training with Nursing Assistants on Co-op 4 at Rhode Island Hospital. She shared, "This experience was so marvelous that now my biggest wish is to be part of a team to help the sick become healthy. I will take advantage of this program to reach my goal of becoming a nurse."
New Healthcare Career Exploration classes have already begun at Dorcas Place, The Genesis Center, Family Resources CAP and Connecting for Children and Families. More classes will begin in 2012, please check the Stepping Up website for updates.
Also, be sure to check out photos from the graduation on
Stepping Up's Flickr photostream, and this video from NBC 10 news highlighting Stepping Up and two of our graduates!
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Inaugural CNA Scholars Program a Success
This summer, Stepping Up partnered with the Academy for Career Exploration (ACE) to pilot the CNA Scholars program, an eight-week intensive program with the goal of training high school students to become Certified Nursing Assistants. We were able to secure funding through Providence/Cranston Workforce Solutions to provide the CNA training. With the help of Mary Parrillo, CNA Training Program Director at CCRI, and Program Coordinator Lori Cavallaro, students engaged in the eight weeks of training with the hopes of obtaining their state license upon completion. We selected fifteen high school juniors; seven were students at the Academy for Career Exploration, one student was from William B. Cooley High School, two were from Mount Pleasant High School, and one student was from The Met. The students received job readiness skills training as well as ongoing support from the two coordinators for the program: Nicolette Ciano, Coordinator Health Care & Science Careers Pathway at the Academy for Career Exploration and Elkinsette Clinton, Career Advisor for Stepping Up.
We are proud to say that twelve students completed the training successfully and nine have already obtained their state license! The remaining three will take the licensing exam next month.
We would like to congratulate all the students on their success, hard work and determination!
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Stepping Up in Woonsocket
This past August, Stepping Up, in partnership with Connecting for Children and Families in Woonsocket, completed our first Career Exploration and Training class with six Stepping Up participants completing the twelve-week training program. Internships were completed at our new partner organizations, Mt. Saint Rita, Hebert Health, and Homefront.
We are pleased to announce that one student has been hired part-time at Homefront. A second student has attained a position at Riverside Community Care in Dedham, Massachusetts. Congratulations!
Currently, classes are being held at both Family Resources and Connecting for Children and Families with a graduation ceremony being planned for all three graduating classes at the beginning of the New Year. We are very pleased with the success we have had so far with our new Woonsocket-based programs, and we look forward to building on that success with each new class that we offer together.
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Meet Stepping Up's Newest Career Advisor!
Stepping Up is pleased to announce the hiring of our newest Career Advisor! Melissa Misiaszek comes to Stepping Up with a wealth of experience and talents, and we are excited to have her as part of our team.
Melissa serves as Career Advisor to incumbent employees at Rhode Island Hospital and Woman and Infants Hospital, assisting them with career development. She also coordinates the budding community pipeline program with our partners in South County. Melissa comes to Stepping Up with experience in Human Resources and recruiting in various industries including hospitality, banking and healthcare dating back to 2002. She also worked as a college career counselor at Rhode Island College. Melissa earned a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology and Master's Degree in Agency Counseling from Rhode Island College. She believes surrounding ourselves with positive people and being active with physical movement play a huge role in our personal happiness. She enjoys motivating others to achieve their professional goals and values education and learning. Melissa can be reached at mmisiaszek@steppingupri.org.
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Stepping Up College Classes Update
As Stepping Up's new Academic Advisor, Adrienne Irish-Newsome has taken on the responsibility for scheduling and monitoring CCRI college classes for our participants. Arguably one of the most gratifying jobs in the program, Adrienne arranges for Stepping Up participants to take college classes free of charge. In this day and age, with so many college students graduating with massive debt, this is a really big deal!Stepping Up offers between three and five CCRI classes every semester that are open only to our participants and are held on the campuses of Rhode Island Hospital and Women and Infants'. The dedicated professors who teach our participants oftentimes go above and beyond what is expected. Many make themselves available before class to answer questions the students might have, as well as answer calls and e-mails from them on a daily basis. This amazing opportunity is made possible through the generosity of our hospital partners, who buy these classes directly from CCRI. Typically, we have between 70 to 100 individuals per semester who take advantage of this option. Each Stepping Up class meets one evening a week, typically from 5 to 7 p.m. Specific classes are offered on a rotating schedule and are the prerequisites that most students need to complete before they can apply to a Health Sciences Program and earn their degree. These include: math, English, health, psychology, and sciences. Thanks to our partnership with CCRI, we have been able to offer a Human Anatomy Class for the first time (pictured above). Generally, this class is in such high demand at CCRI, that oftentimes if you don't go online within the first half hour of registration, the class is full. Because our class is open only to Stepping Up participants, it eliminates the delay many of our students previously encountered when trying to register along with all other CCRI students. One of the things that Stepping Up is very proud of is the high class completion rate of our students (93%) and the grades they earn. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of Stepping Up participants receive A's and B's in our classes. These impressive statistics are a function of the effort and dedication that our students put into their studies, in combination with good teaching, as well as the free tutoring and coaching that Stepping Up provides. As the Stepping Up program continues expanding into northern and southern Rhode Island, we look forward to being able to offer CCRI classes in these locations, allowing convenient access to the education and training necessary to advance into high-growth, high-demand health care jobs. "Upon the education of the people of this country, the fate of this country depends." - Benjamin Disraeli |
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