HPOG aimed to prepare participants for careers in health care occupations that paid well and were expected to experience labor shortages or increased demand. HPOG 1.0 Emergency Assistance grantees provided standard HPOG services and, to a subset of participants, the option to receive emergency assistance to cover unexpected expenses. These expenses could include car repair, child care, eviction prevention, and utility payments.
HPOG 1.0 refers to the first round of five-year HPOG grants that ACF awarded in 2010. HPOG 1.0 funded grantees that were required to (1) help participants develop skills relevant to the health care industry; (2) support career pathways that allowed participants to build a career by advancing through successively higher levels of education and training and to exit into employment at multiple possible points; (3) provide training leading to credentials recognized by employers and the health care industry; (4) provide supportive services, such as financial counseling or job retention services, to help participants overcome barriers to training participation and employment; and (5) provide training at accessible times and locations. The most common occupational training programs were six-to-eight week courses to become a nursing aide, orderly, or attendant; some registered nursing programs could last up to four years.
All HPOG 1.0 programs served people participating in TANF and other people with low income, but different programs set different financial, academic, and behavioral criteria to determine whether applicants were eligible. HPOG 1.0–Emergency Assistance was implemented in the following locations: Full Employment Council (Missouri), Bergen Community College (New Jersey), and the New York Research Foundation of the City University of New York-Hostos Community College. The evaluation of HPOG 1.0—Emergency Assistance also examined the effectiveness of: HPOG 1.0 - Facilitated Peer Support, HPOG 1.0 - Noncash Incentives, and HPOG 1.0.