Funds Pledged For Health Care Job Training

A major labor union and a federal empowerment zone announced an initiative to boost health care job advancement for Upper Manhattan residents at a press conference on Monday.

The Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation and 1199 Service Employees International Union announced the Career Opportunities in Health Care program at Mount Sinai Medical Center. The initiative will put $651,698 of UMEZ funding toward job training for 118 Upper Manhattan residents.

The program is supported by three hospitals—Mount Sinai Medical Center, North General Hospital, and New York Presbyterian Hospital. The initiative will be the first time 1199SEIU trains people outside of its union’s membership.

According to Kenneth Davis, M.D., President and CEO of Mount Sinai, the initiative was inspired by the fast growth of the health care industry, as well as Upper Manhattan’s need for more high-paying jobs and trained employees. “We as a health care organization are committed to more than health care issues. We are committed to the community,” Davis said.

Kenneth Knuckles, President and CEO of UMEZ, stressed the importance of offering jobs of all different skill levels while encouraging advancement. Debby King, executive director of 1199SEIU, pointed to Jorge Negron as an example of what the program aims to achieve.

When Negron, 34, began as a housekeeper at Mt. Sinai, he was a 19-year-old with little educational background and a daughter to support. With the help of UMEZ and 1199SEIU, he is finishing his nursing degree at the New York City College of Technology and hopes to return to where he began, this time as a registered nurse.

“There are many people who can use this help, many people who don’t have the support and encouragement,” Negron said.

At the event, Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-Harlem) referred to health care as a nationwide concern. “We do have a national crisis, and it’s always good to see that we in Harlem and we in Upper Manhattan not only recognize our problems, but deal with them,” Rangel said.

Rangel praised the program’s attempt to “make certain that people can work with dignity and support their families,” and called the inability to provide health care for all people “one of our major failures in this country.”

He added that the program will give young people an incentive to stay in school and off of the streets in the hopes of becoming tomorrow’s psychiatrists and surgeons. “You will never know the number of lives you’ve turned around, whether they’re patients, whether they’re students, whether they’re doctors,” he said.

Melissa Repko can be reached at melissa.repko@columbiaspectator.com.