Annual Report 2004 - Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

health-care workers has left the
field “scrambling to find
employees who not only can
do the job, but also have a
genuine interest in the work
and want to make a difference
in their communities.”
FHEO is bridging that
gap locally by engaging
workers like Lorick for entrylevel
jobs in the sector, as well
as helping them obtain the
education, training and
supports needed to advance into higherprofile
— and higher-paying — positions.
Such “career ladders” are largely a result of
the project’s partnerships, Hagenow says. By
bringing diverse institutional strengths and
resources to the table, the partners are creating
systems and strategies by which workers can
address barriers — educational, economic
and/or personal — that might otherwise limit
their job opportunities.
In turn, FHEO partners — and the
greater Flint community — benefit from
the creation of a skilled, sustainable
workforce that is more actively engaged in
the city’s future.
“The [project graduates] are bringing
stability to themselves and their families, and
also to local employers and the
neighborhoods they live in,” Hagenow said.
“This collective ‘win’ is so unique to this
project, generating opportunities that benefit
everyone involved.”
Creating and nurturing community-based
partnerships like those involved in the FHEO
can present a distinct set of challenges.
Skorcz says that for some
organizations, focusing on the ultimate
goals of a collaborative — those beyond
the partners’ own immediate interests and
objectives — can be difficult. Helping
them make that “leap of faith,” he says,
is essential to ensuring project success at
all levels.
Karen Easterling, director of corporate
and community services for the Flint
campus of Baker College, agrees. She says a
project as complex as FHEO requires the
skills, resources and energies of numerous
partners, as well as their collective dedication
to the success of the project as a whole, not
just their respective parts.
“We have to be less concerned about
what piece of the project we perform and
more concerned about performing that piece
to the best of our ability,” Easterling said.
“Partners also need to openly communicate
with one another in order to get the ‘kinks’
out of the processes.”
The success with which the FHEO
partners have risen to such challenges is a
source of pride for Skorcz.
“Our partners continue to amaze me,”
he said. “They’ve come to the table with a
genuine focus on helping folks from
depressed neighborhoods obtain true careeroriented
jobs. And by working together,
they’re making it happen.”
Sunserria Lorick works as
a pharmacy audit clerk
at Genesys Regional
Medical Center.
2004 ANNUAL REPORT
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