By Geralyn Magan
The HBCUs-LTSS Careers Initiative will bring together LTSS providers and leaders at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to improve racial and ethnic diversity in the LTSS career pipeline.
Providers of long-term services and supports (LTSS) and leaders at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) are now working together to increase awareness about LTSS careers among underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.
Thirty stakeholders, including leaders from LeadingAge member organizations and HBCUs, gathered at the LeadingAge Annual Meeting in Atlanta to begin making plans for implementing the HBCUs-LTSS Careers Initiative. The historic gathering was hosted by LeadingAge and UNCF, a minority education organization.
Founded in 1944, UNCF provides direct support to 37 member institutions. It has raised over $5 billion to advance minority education and, each year, awards over 10,000 student scholarships totaling $100 million. UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building, which is helping to lead the HBCUs-LTSS Careers Initiative, is dedicated to supporting Black college improvement and transformation.
ABOUT THE INITIATIVE
The HBCUs-LTSS Careers Initiative will bring together leaders from UNCF, HBCUs and other universities, and LeadingAge providers to develop strategies for expanding the capacity of HBCUs to prepare students for jobs in the LTSS field and to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the LTSS career pipeline, with a focus on mid-level and senior-level positions.
Proposed areas of focus for this initiative include:
- Providing internships and scholarships to students studying in fields associated with aging services.
- Working to create career awareness, fellowships, and leadership programs for graduating seniors and alumni interested in pursuing and/or transitioning into aging services.
- Helping faculty and institutions of higher learning develop curricula aligned with the demands of aging services careers.
- Creating campus-based advisory groups or communities of practice designed to create faculty champions for the aging services field and establish ongoing connection between universities and aging services professionals.
- Helping HBCUs and minority-serving institutions develop leadership/management programs, certifications, and credentials associated with emerging or high-potential aging services careers.
- Building a strategic alignment between HBCUs and LeadingAge providers, including research collaborations with the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston.
- Engaging LTSS providers to work in underserved communities, in collaboration with HBCUs, so they can promote the mission and priorities of aging services and related careers.
“We viewed this meeting as chance to bring together key partners for a kind of first date,” says Adrienne Ruffin, vice president and head of long-term services and supports strategic initiatives and operations at the LTSS Center. “We wanted to see if there was interest in moving this initiative forward, and I think everyone walked away saying that this is something they want to do.”
With the inaugural meeting behind them, the LTSS Center and UNCF will now focus on laying the groundwork needed to apply for a planning grant that would help the partners develop the HBCUs-LTSS Careers Initiative and identify key steps involved in operationalizing it.
REMARKS FROM FREEMAN HRABOWSKI
Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), was on hand during the planning meeting to offer counsel and advice to participants. Described by The Washington Post as “one of the country’s most influential voices in higher education,”
Hrabowski applauded the HBCUs-LTSS Careers Initiative during an informal question-and-answer session.
“There’s something noble about pulling people of all races into work that affects all people,” he told meeting participants. “Getting people (of color) into (LTSS) work can lead to more people of color wanting to do this work. But it takes professionals to pull people into the work. (Students have) got to get those internships and see what the work is about. You want them to get around (LTSS professionals) so they can see their excitement.”
How should the HBCUs-LTSS Careers Initiative define its success? Hrabowski recommended focusing on bringing more diversity into the aging services C-suite, a challenge that is shared by most of corporate America. While there are exceptions, Hrabowski said, only two percent of leadership positions in corporate America are filled by people of color.
That problem can be corrected, he said, by paying more attention to career pathways.
“Who are the people in the C-suite? How do you get to the C-suite?” he asked. “If you’re going to have an intentional effort that leads to success, that success must be defined by how (we) build a group of leaders, starting in college, who can move to the next level. And it’s not just getting them into your organization. How do you support them?”
Robyn Stone, LTSS Center co-director, and Julian Thompson, director of strategy at UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building, believe that the HBCUs-LTSS Careers Initiative is a good place to begin building that support.
“We believe that both HBCUs and LeadingAge providers will benefit from this type of strategic endeavor, given the tremendous opportunities that HBCUs have in the 21st century workforce ecosystem,” they wrote in a joint letter.