BRAINSTORMS

Massachusetts Charities Band Together to Help Human-Services Workers Seek Higher Education

When Stan Connors began his career in human services in 1971, the field was filled with people like himself -- college graduates who, despite low wages, were eager to put their 60's idealism into practice by helping those with mental illnesses, mental retardation, substance abuse, and other disabilities.

The need for such services was on the rise, he says, as state-run psychiatric hospitals around the country were shuttered as part of a movement to de-institutionalize mental-health care.

Then came the 80's and 90's, says Mr. Connors, who is now president of Bay Cove Human Services, a Boston charity that provides rehabilitation services to people with mental disabilities. Those decades saw a cultural shift that sent droves of college graduates toward more lucrative careers in investment banking, high technology, and other white-collar fields.

Meanwhile, salaries for employees at human-services charities in Massachusetts and elsewhere have remained stagnant -- an average of just under $20,000 for an entry-level position, according to the Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers, an umbrella organization that provides advocacy and training for 300 human-service charities in the state. One big reason: Most of those groups rely on contracts with the state, rather than private support, for their operating budgets.

"Our ability to pay a decent wage is pretty tightly circumscribed," says Harvey Boulay, director of development at Vinfen Corporation, a human-services charity in Cambridge that serves individuals with mental illness, HIV, AIDS, and other disabilities. Groups like his and Mr. Connors's have had few options but to hire workers with little education and few skills to deal with mentally disabled patients. Most charities like theirs hire caregivers who have completed only high school, says Mr. Connors, who serves on the board of directors of the Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers.

It's difficult for unskilled workers who care directly for patients to move into long-term careers in human services. The result has been high turnover, says Michael D. Weekes, executive director of the council. Some organizations experience annual turnover rates as high as 40 percent, he says, and operate programs that run with 30 percent of their staff positions vacant. "We're talking about major understaffing," he says.

Mr. Weekes and the other members of the council decided that the best way to combat the myriad problems of the human-services workforce was through education. The council and its member groups, as well as other, nonmember human-services groups, hammered out a deal in 2000 with Massachusetts legislators and the state's Board of Higher Education. The agreement allows employees of human-services charities that hold contracts with the state to take undergraduate courses free at 26 Massachusetts public colleges and universities -- a perk already available to those who work directly for the state.

Among the requirements of the tuition-remission program: The classes must have empty slots, and participants must be enrolled in courses that are related to human services or that are necessary to obtain an undergraduate degree.

More than 800 employees have enrolled in the tuition-remission program so far. Among them is Kimberly Barros, an assistant program director at Vinfen Corporation. Among the classes she has taken at Roxbury Community College are English composition and general psychology.

"It's changed me in a lot of ways," says Ms. Barros, who has three children and had previously put off going to college because she could not afford it. "It's helped my writing a great deal, it's built my confidence, and it's helped me communicate better with the clients I work with."

Putting the tuition-remission program in place was not easy. It took more than a year of negotiations between the human-services organizations, the board of education, legislators, and others to come up with an arrangement that would satisfy all sides, and that would not cost the state or the academic institutions additional funds.

The council agreed to bear the cost, about $60,000 a year, to put the program in place and run it, including the task of screening participants for eligibility, issuing certificates, and marketing the program. To help offset the cost, the council charges a $10 fee to screen applicants and provide them with a certificate of eligibility. The fee is paid by the charities for which the applicants work.

The council also had to persuade legislators and others that human-services employees should be given special access to the state higher-education system while other state-contract workers, such as those who pave roads, are excluded. "Our position was that the work our employees do strictly benefits the people of the Commonwealth," Mr. Weekes says. "A better educated workforce will provide better quality care."

Lawmakers were persuaded that health-services workers required special consideration, says Mr. Connors: "There was some real concern on the part of legislators that our industry is really heading into a crisis, and that something had to be done."

Although it is early to tell exactly what difference the tuition-remission program will make for human-services providers in Massachusetts, a review of the program's first year by the Center for Public Policy and Administration at the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that, like Ms. Barros, 99 percent of the 176 program enrollees who responded to the survey were enthusiastic and thought the courses would help them professionally. Almost two-thirds reported greater satisfaction with their jobs since enrolling in courses, and three out of four said their interactions with clients had also improved.

The program's effect on turnover is still unclear, the review found. While 84 percent of the participants said they believed that taking college courses would help them find better jobs outside the field of human services, only 13 percent said they expected to leave the field within the next five years. Furthermore, two-thirds of the participants reported an interest in pursuing another career within human services since enrolling in the tuition-remission program.

But the review also found, and the program's creators readily acknowledge, that there are still plenty of hurdles to overcome. Many participants expressed frustration at the program's unclear guidelines. They were unsure, for example, which courses the program covered. And while the program covers the cost of courses, it does not pay for books and supplies or other costs, like transportation. Some of the charities, though not all of them, cover those costs for their employees, Mr. Weekes says.

The review also noted that, because most classes are held during the day, many human-services providers are at work and cannot participate in the program. The council is urging member organizations to be flexible with employees' schedules and otherwise make it easier for workers to participate.

Perhaps most frustrating, say Mr. Weekes and others, is that the tuition-remission program does not cover continuing education or graduate-level courses, though the council is hoping to eventually persuade legislators to expand the program. "We are developing a new brochure about the program, we are sending out individual letters," he says. "We can't do enough to communicate how important and beneficial this is."

For Ms. Barros, who is considering pursuit of a bachelor's degree in psychology, the benefits have already exceeded her expectations, even extending beyond work. "My children already are seeing how much farther a piece of paper can take you," she says. "I'm sorry I didn't do this when I got out of high school, but I'm glad I'm doing it. Right now, it's the highlight of my life."

To learn more about the tuition-remission program, go to the Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers Web site at http://www.providers.org or contact the council at (617) 428-3637.

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