Category: Video

Many communities across the country face a critical shortage of nurses. To help address this challenge in Butler County, Missouri, Heartland Forward designed a healthcare career pathway to train skilled nurses in their communities.

Through partnerships with the Poplar Bluff Chamber of Commerce, the Missouri Hospital Association, five major healthcare employers and three educational institutions, the program connects high school students to nursing education and apprenticeship opportunities, supporting them to pursue professional nursing degrees.

At the Community Funding Accelerator, we were proud to support both the $1.5M grant application and the implementation of funding in the Poplar Bluff community.

Watch the video above to discover the impact of this collaboration and meet several of our incredible community partners.

Earlier this year, the Community Funding Accelerator and its partners had the opportunity to present at one of the biggest education conferences in the country.

Nick Rodriguez, the CEO of Delivery Associates, the public sector consulting firm that leads CFA, moderated a panel discussion at ASU+GSV that featured:

• Mayor Randall L. Woodfin of Birmingham, Alabama
• Mayor Donna Deegan of Jacksonville, Florida
• Corban Tillemann-Dick, founder and CEO of Maybell Quantum
• Katie Jenner, the Secretary of Education at the Indiana Department of Education

The group discussed the importance of collaboration between schools and the private sector to promote long-term economic prosperity. The leaders also discussed the role of organizations like CFA in increasing awareness and equitable access to workforce development opportunities.

Meet Ronnie King and the team at the MyVillage Project in Jacksonville, Florida. CFA is partnering with coalitions like the MyVillage Project all over the U.S. to support their applications for competitive federal grants.