Following a whopping $590 million deal to acquire a 50-property SNF portfolio in Texas, the team at Dwyer Workforce Development (DWD) has no plans on slowing down efforts to bolster the skilled nursing workforce.
Major resources DWD has created for its “Dwyer Scholars” – housing, transportation and child care – will become a larger part of the program as it grows, according to Barb Clapp, CEO for DWD. The group calls its certified nursing assistant trainees (CNAs) Dwyer Scholars.
Maryland-based DWD plans to buy multi-income housing so scholars have an opportunity to live somewhere safe and secure, said Clapp.
“We’re looking for dirt, to build housing. We’re also looking to create child care centers for our scholars,” said Clapp. “If we can find it, we’re going after it. We’re building out all those resources for our scholars.”
Potential repurposing of existing buildings is up for discussion too – Clapp said leadership at a technical college in Waco, Texas is looking to collaborate with DWD to transform a church into a summer camp or day care.
“We’re looking at that. We’re talking to an organization in these towns, it’s a national organization, a not-for-profit, to try to secure drop-in child care and camp, health club memberships for scholars in those states,” said Clapp.
Ideally, any additional real estate projects tied to DWD would offer shared value to the surrounding community.
“We’re going to need to get grants for that. I’m talking to people at the state level in Texas and in Maryland,” she added.
Case management support for Scholars is also proving to be a crucial element for Scholars, which could number as many as 700 next year. DWD is pursuing a wide range of funding to bolster this program and scale it further.
Funding sources and ties to CFG
With DWD’s Schedule I (Form 990) filed, Clapp said, the group officially started applying for grants this year. Corporate and state grants will keep scholar incentives coming in as well, with a recent awarded grant from Walmart for $5,000 and another from the state of Maryland for $250,000.
Coupled with grants, DWD is hoping Medicaid rebasing will help bridge the gap when it comes to increased costs of operation, including higher wages for direct care workers.
“It appears that Texas, which really hasn’t had an increase in a long time, is up for a pretty big increase this year,” said Jack Dwyer, founder of DWD and also founder, owner and president of Capital Funding Group (CFG). “To attract workforce, it’s costing more money. You need the reimbursement just to keep up with the expenses that are spiraling up.”
Dwyer hopes an increase in Medicaid will provide more money for the DWD mission; the group attached itself to the state through the 50-property Regency Integrated Health Services portfolio.
“The cash flow from the buildings in the operation will go towards accomplishing the mission,” Dwyer added.
The Regency deal, which moves the properties from a for-profit to not-for-profit structure, appears to be a rarity in the space – a heavy amount of transactions this year have been from not-for-profit to for-profit.
“I was a part of it originally, but the main owner was a private equity company. Basically, they ultimately wanted to sell, it was time for them to sell. It’s been about eight years,” said Dwyer. He convinced the PE company to sell the portfolio after explaining the DWD mission.
On the topic of any potential upside for CFG, he said it really comes down to brand integrity and an excitement from clients. Operator clients in the thick of a workforce crisis will jump at the chance to work with a lender that can also offer paid scholarships for workforce training.
“How many lenders do you know that are doing this for their clients? I can tell you what the answer is – zero. That’s unheard of,” added Dwyer. “Here’s a lender who’s paying for 15 scholarships, for training, and then, 15 scholarships for college for my employees … Don’t you think it’s more likely that they’ll go finance it with me?”
Case management is a game changer
Clapp said DWD is adding more of what works for scholars as well – more case managers, and more mental health support for direct care workers who would have otherwise left their career path due to such life barriers.
Clapp believes the most important aspect of the Scholars program lies in removing barriers for prospective CNAs. Active case management workers, social workers, as part of the Dwyer team do everything from getting scholars electronic equipment to continue their studies online, to driving them to appointments if they lack transportation.
“If you don’t have the case manager following the person and their kid gets sick, they wind up not showing up for work for a couple of days, or they couldn’t get transportation, and then they just get fired – the case manager is there to intervene,” added Clapp.
On top of that added advocacy, Clapp wants Dwyer scholars to have transportation available to them through the program; the team is looking for anything to help alleviate any barrier that might be in the way for their scholars.
”We would subsidize housing, we would provide child care; whatever it takes to keep them at the job,” added Dwyer.
Scaling DWD
Clapp said the team has already begun building its workforce pipeline in the state and forging partnerships with workforce boards as well as other not-for-profits. Community colleges, she added, are another partnership avenue to train Dwyer Scholars.
After its first year as a startup in Maryland, DWD will have graduated roughly 287 students from the Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) scholar program – at least that’s the number projected for the end of the year, Clapp said.
Clapp and Dwyer anticipate a combined 700 scholars between Texas and Maryland for next year.
DWD has plans to give scholars the option to upskill into a number of roles once they’ve been a CNA for a year, Clapp said. Natural next steps for them would be training for a patient care tech or medtech role, and the career ladder goes all the way up to licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and registered nurses (RNs).
A Dwyer scholar phone app is in the works too, keeping staff involved with badges for different accomplishments.
“If you go from $16 an hour as a CNA, and then you can be a [director of nursing, or DON] and make $100,000 to $150,000 a year … that changes a person; that changes a family. It gives the chance for first generation grads and that kind of thing,” added Clapp.
Companies featured in this article:
Dwyer Workforce Development, Regency Integrated Health Services
