When it comes to the customized training program administered by CareerSource NEFL, the agency works with many public and privately-held companies – including non-profit agencies like Pine Castle.
Founded In 1952 by a group of 33 families to provide support services for their children with intellectual or developmental differences (IDDs), Pine Castle transitioned in 1965 to serve an aging adult population with IDD. Today, the nonprofit agency has a staff of around 100 and provides services for more than 200 adult participants from its campus, located on Spring Park Road in Jacksonville.
“As a nonprofit like Pine Castle, every little bit of financial help counts, so to partner with CareerSource Northeast Florida to develop our workforce has given us a lot of opportunities to serve our community better,” said Pine Castle Chief Human Resources Officer Jose Rodriguez. “We’re super excited to have found this relationship.”
The agency recently transitioned from its traditional day program for adults to create the Pine Castle Academy – which offers two career tracks for its participants: A Community Employment Services Pathway, which guides participants seeking employment within the community to find the best-suited career path, and the Pathway to Life Enrichment Curriculum for those adults with IDD who have more severe physical or health issues, which focuses on developing the life skills necessary to increase overall independence and quality of life through hands-on learning experiences.
In addition, Pine Castle operates a workshop on campus, where participants fulfill kit-assembly services through contracts with private companies and organizations – one of the largest contracts involving the assembly of drug-testing kits for the State of Florida. Some participants also work in an on-campus woodshop, manufacturing more than 1 million survey stakes annually for the construction industry.
Rodriguez worked with CareerSource NEFL Industry Manager for Healthcare Carol Cullen and her team, along with Sonya Speights, Director of Training and Career Pathways, to secure funding to help Pine Castle employees receive certifications for working with participants and other training to support its manufacturing efforts.
“This is the great thing about our partnership with CareerSource NEFL because they worked with us to figure out how we could leverage these training dollars to improve both our service delivery to participants and also stay up on best practices in the manufacturing industry,” Rodriguez said.
Education is one of four components Pine Castle identified to support our employees, which led to the development of a learning management system.
Through CareerSource NEFL’s Customized Training Program, Pine Castle Employees Haley Jones and Harley James received Cornell University’s Workforce Incentive Practitioner Credentials in June, which allows them to help participants navigate social security issues when they achieve outside employment and avoid losing necessary benefits.
“We have about 300-plus courses available for all our staff members, and this is the toughest component because these courses are very expensive,” he said. “For example, the Cornell course costs about $2,800 per person, dollars I’ve got to find in my budget…and easier to accomplish with the help of CareerSource NEFL.”
In working with companies and nonprofit agencies like Pine Castle, CareerSource NEFL acts as a funding partner – working with outside vendors like Cornell University to provide the training and providing funds to offset the full training costs.
Two other employees, Katerine Lewis and Carla Fitzpatrick, attended Front Line Supervisor 1 Training classes, which began in June and are ongoing now. The training, a prerequisite needed prior to mid-level manager training, is provided to those in supervisory roles in manufacturing and provides direction on “the necessary skill set a supervisor needs to work well in a manufacturing environment,” Rodriguez said.
In May, Pine Castle Woodshop Manager Jessica Maltzman completed the Leading with Success Mid-Level Managers Course.
“This allowed us to send some of our management staff over to the First Coast Manufacturers Association, where they learned some hard skills and soft skills in manufacturing,” he said. “That training allows us to stay relevant to what is required of our teams when it comes to best practices in manufacturing and what the future looks like at other companies…things we can bring back to our agency in training our participants and staff here. For example, we changed some of our processes after visiting other sites like Johnson & Johnson.”
Rodriguez adds that the training results in connections to other companies and networking opportunities resulting in partnerships and future collaborations.
“These relationships made inside these companies can lead to some job opportunities for some of the participants, as well,” he said.
Pine Castle also leveraged the program to send nearly 20 employees through Direct Service Professional (DSP) Apprenticeship/Training. DSPs are the employees who work directly with Pine Castle participants on a daily basis. Employees are screened and vetted to take the year-long course, used to certify DSPs through the State of Florida.
“They learned all the skill sets they need necessary to become a stronger, direct support professional, Rodriguez said. “Also, CareerSource NEFL helped us become one of about only four sites statewide that facilitate this program.”
So far, Rodriguez says the partnership with CareerSource NEFL has saved the nonprofit about $15,000 in annual training costs – and allowed the agency to get more employees through training sooner.
“This is a huge success story for us,” he said. “Carol and the staff members we worked with helped us identify the resources we could tap into. I do see when you have the right people in these positions, they can really help organizations like ours train and prepare our employees to do their jobs better, prepare them for future positions, and stay up to speed on changes in the market that impact our manufacturing operations.”