August 23, 2005 - Submitted by Mary J. Garguile, M.A. Dean of Workforce Development.

A celebration is in order, and I want to share the good news and highlight some awesome teamwork. I was just officially informed that Olympic College’s two Workforce grants submitted July 28^th were funded! This is such good news for OC.

1. A High Demand grant for $225,000 to expand the Associate Degree Nursing Program by 25 FTEs this fall. (This is permanent annual funding).
2. A Workforce Development grant of $100,000 to develop the Physical Therapy Assistant Program (we also have dedicated our base workforce allocation of $40,000 to this effort, providing a total of $140,000 this year). This is expected to be two year funding; for now, one year is guaranteed.

This success was a real team effort that needs to be recognized. Geri Babbo and I worked side by side on writing the RN expansion proposal with incredible support from many others. The expertise and knowledge Geri provided proved invaluable. Leif Bentsen provided excellent background on the Olympic Health Care Alliance, the WDC’s emphasis on local health care expansion, as well as provided input on the proposal. Judi Brown provided review and feedback as did Michelle Andreas of the SBCTC. John Babbo checked our math on the budget about three times to be sure it was correct. Patty Triggs provided information supporting the criteria on how OC links students to employment, and Amy Hatfield and Elaine Williams worked diligently on our plan for bridging ABE/ESL students to a nursing career. These were all essential in order to meet the application minimum critieria and be eligible for funding. It is important to recognize this effort. Notably we were able to get 13 letters of support from employers and labor representatives for this expansion, due in large part to the wonderful relationships and reputation the nursing faculty have built in the community. Without this excellent teamwork we may not have been successful. Our grant was selected as a model High Demand proposal for the system, something of which we should all be proud. The grant panel felt it was number one of the 24 proposals submitted.

A special “thank you” goes to Theresa MacLennan for her leadership and hard work related to the successful Physical Therapy Assistant Workforce Development proposal. Theresa was responsible for writing this proposal and for the background work to obtain the support letters, of which there were many. As you are all aware, securing successful grants requires hours of hard work as well as chasing numerous details. Leif Bentsen again provided industry survey data, worked on securing industry support and provided proposal feedback. Amy and Elaine again provided detail on the basic skills integration requirement. Judi Brown has provided tireless support for the start up of our PTA program. Ellen Wirtz, Judi Brown and Theresa sat in on the “Q and A” phone call from review panel members. Joan Hanten has pledged support to help us with program equipment donations. Throughout the grant development process it was clear that our community really wants to see this new program begin. Support was very evident over the past few weeks when we faced a challenge to our Notice of Intent from another college. This challenge was subsequently dropped when local PTA employers and others rallied for OC. We are ready to move forward now that we have the funds to do so.

We are always so buried in our work, it is important to take time to be thankful for big or small “wins”. If you see any of these people around campus, thank them for their efforts on behalf of OC. (Gee, I sure hope I did not forget anyone that helped, but if I did, this is my disclaimer and apology).

Now the work (and fun) begins….