Samaritan, Big Bend partner for workforce training grant

Samaritan Healthcare and Big Bend Community College (BBCC) recently formed a partnership that resulted in the hospital being awarded a $140,500 grant from the state of Washington for workforce training.

According to Lisa McDaniel, chief human resource officer for Samaritan, the hospital’s contribution comes in just shy of $358,400.

The state of Washington offers money to local industries to support them in workforce training through a program called the Job Skills Program (JSP). Big Bend’s coordinator for the center of business and industry, Beth Laszlow, said JSP grant money is only available to community colleges in the state, which facilitate grant applications and work with local employers to access the money. Samaritan was able to apply for and eventually be given the grant through its partnership with the college.

McDaniel said Laszlow was instrumental in Samaritan being awarded the grant money from the state. Conversations between Laszlow and Samaritan CEO Tom Thompson about extended leadership development eventually led, McDaniel said, to what has been branded as the Samaritan Leadership Institute. The goal for the institute, she said, is to involve individuals in the community and regional healthcare leaders in leadership development so “we could raise a level of leadership within the community.”

Laszlow advised Samaritan personnel about grant money available for workforce training, to include leadership training, through the state’s JSP program. McDaniel then took the necessary steps to gather training opportunities and data, and ultimately build a plan for the training as part of the grant application.