Nonprofit vows to offer free nursing training to 400 Texans per year

When Dwyer Workforce Development bought Regency Integrated Health Services for $590 million in September, it didn't just acquire more than 50 nursing and rehabilitation centers in Texas.

It began a program in Texas to increase the number of people working in health care.

Dwyer Workforce Development is a nonprofit that was founded in 2021 in Maryland by Jack and Nancy Dwyer. It buys for-profit senior care centers and converts them into nonprofit centers. The money earned from the centers goes back into health care training through the organization's Dwyer Scholars program.

Locally, the nursing and rehabilitation centers Dwyer took over include Brodie Ranch, Heritage Park, Onion Creek, Riverside, Southpark Meadows, West Oaks and Windsor in Austin; and in Central Texas, Bastrop Lost Pines, Silver Pines and Windsor in Bastrop, and Elgin Nursing, Pflugerville Nursing and Towers in Smithville.

The money those centers earn will go back into training more people through the Dwyer Scholars program.

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The scholars program offers certified nursing assistant training to people who "who lack opportunities," said Barb Clapp, CEO of the Jack and Nancy Dwyer Workforce Development Center.

"Great things happen when you give people the tools to change their lives,” said Jack Dwyer, founder, owner and president of Capital Funding Group and founder of Dwyer Workforce Development.

"We’re reinventing what it means to be a nonprofit because our solution isn’t one step — it’s comprehensive. We take action, not just donate money, and I am committed to continue investing my life to help others succeed.”

Often these are people aging out of foster care, young mothers, new citizens or refugees, or other people who cannot afford college or skills training.

"Becoming a first-generation nursing grad, that changes a person's life," Clapp said. "Circumstances should not define you."

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Once scholars receive their certified nursing assistant certificate, Dwyer helps them with job placement. They do not have to work in one of Dwyer's nursing and rehabilitation centers after they receive their training to continue to be part of the program.

Scholars are asked to work a year as a certified nursing assistant, and then future career training to become a licensed vocational nurse, a registered nurse or a physician's assistant is paid for by Dwyer.

"It's about doing the right thing," Clap said. "We're supporting retention of current workers; we're improving the census number of patients per nurse."

Dwyer also provides case management to prevent barriers from knocking scholars off their paths. That might mean help with transportation or child care, or fixing the door to a scholar's home after a domestic violence situation, Clapp said.

"They tell case managers things they won't tell their employers," Clapp said.

It could be any barrier. In Maryland, a case manager helped explain to an employer why a certified nursing assistant should not have to take off her hijab head covering for the employee badge photo. Having that advocate, the scholar was able to get her badge and start work.

Dwyer launched Dwyer Scholars last year in Maryland with the goal of training 250 people a year there.

In Texas, it wants to train 400 people the first year, and it is starting with the Austin area before Houston and eventually Dallas. Dwyer is working on developing connections to education partners such as Austin Community College.

To apply to be a scholar, people can go to the Dwyer Workforce Development website, dwyerworkforcedev.org.

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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Nonprofit vows to offer free nursing training to 400 Texans per year