HPOG Promising Practice: Edmonds Community College, Partnerships

Lynnwood, WA

It takes a village to develop the right tools to help I-CATCH program participants succeed.

Edmonds Community College’s Innovations in Creating Access to Careers in Healthcare (I-CATCH) program provides healthcare training for individuals aiming to achieve income independence through well-paying, high-demand careers in the healthcare industry.

The program knows that community partner referrals are the first step to program success. They need partners committed to sharing resources and engaging with participants throughout their healthcare training journey. The program is making a strong financial commitment to reinforce the partnerships that make services available to students.

Edmonds College has educational partners that provide training resources, including Everett Community College and Skagit Valley Community College. These partnerships provide more locations for students to train. The local workforce development center, Workforce Snohomish offers I-CATCH staff direct access to regional hiring offices and staff to assist with job placement. Two other partners, Refugee and Immigrant Services Northwest and TRAC Associates, provide services to participants who are non­native English speakers (little to no English language skills) and immigrants as well as those with difficult backgrounds that could present hiring issues.

Together, the team has managed and overcome participants’ obstacles. Recently, a participant’s spouse needed to secure a job to help support their family. As a non-native English speaker, the spouse was having difficulty with the interview process even with the help of an HPOG Navigator. TRAC Associates stepped in to help secure a job that saw the spouse’s language abilities as a benefit. This allowed the participant to focus on HPOG coursework once again and not worry as much about bills.

“I-CATCH is successful because of the strong community partnerships that provide talented, experienced staff that are located in the I-CATCH office to not only bring their considerable expertise but the full resources of their organization to support our students,” says Charles Thompson, I-CATCH Director. “It also demonstrates to our students how important a network of supporters is to reach their goals. We don’t do this by ourselves.”

Although many hands are involved in this program, I-CATCH and partner organizations operate as a team with one passion: to serve HPOG students.

This Promising Practice was self-identified by the grantee and information contained in this document was provided by the grantee.