Erie County Executive Brenton Davis, flanked by officials from the county’s three major health-care providers, took a sledgehammer to a wall inside Erie County Community College to inaugurate work on a multi-million-dollar health care training unit at the school.
Calling the wall, “a symbol of the barriers that have existed too long in our community” in terms of available health-care occupations and the people to fill them, Davis and guests praised the effort as a win-win for both job providers and a diverse student body in need of careers.
“For too long, jobs for our communities of color have been low-paying, entry level work that somehow becomes the ceiling rather than the floor,” Davis said. “This initiative is a meaningful, concrete step in changing that.”
Called the Allied Health and Nursing Labs project, the college will remodel 7,860 square feet of the Erie-West campus to create a wing with laboratories, classrooms and clinical training areas.
The unique design would mimic actual hospital and health-care facilities.
The project cost is estimated at $5.2 million, with Erie County investing $2 million and the remainder coming from a state grant and in-kind contributions from Allegheny Health Network, which operates St. Vincent Hospital; the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centers, which operate Hamot Hospital; and Erie-based Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.
The Community College would train hundreds of students in Digital Medical Sonography, Licensed Practical Nursing, and introductory patient care service training for Patient Care Technicians and Certified Nurse Assistants.
Dr. Michael Victor, who chairs the college Board of Trustees, praised “the tremendous support from the Office of County Executive,” calling the health care initiative, “the logical next step in helping to prepare our underserved communities for outstanding careers in health-related fields. Also, it is a way to help our civic partners – our health-care systems – in meeting their needs for trained associates in the health-care field.”
