Skip To Content
Back to News List

ESL Provides $1.5 Million Grant to Rochester General Hospital for Nursing Workforce Development Program

Rochester, NY — ESL provided a $1.5 million grant to Rochester General Hospital to support a workforce development program providing training, education, and job placement to low-income individuals in Greater Rochester. This grant will support students working to become certified Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), Registered Nurses (RNs), and Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs).

“Nurses are critical caregivers and healers in our community when it comes to providing quality healthcare,” said Faheem Masood, president and CEO, ESL Federal Credit Union. “Our goal with this funding is to not only ensure we are building this pipeline for a necessary, highly-respected, well-paying career, but to also ensure that those students in the program have the resources necessary to finish their studies and achieve their career goals.”

Funding from ESL will support:

  • Scholarships in nursing education for LPN, RN, and CNA training programs.
  • The Youth Apprenticeship Program that exposes high school students to various careers in nursing.
  • Wrap-around services such as career counseling, childcare and housing assistance to ensure program participants can complete their schooling.
  • Emergency needs regarding unforeseen personal hardships, reliable transportation, exam fees, and ancillary fees such as textbooks and laptop computers.

The program helps to fill critical nursing shortages experienced in the local healthcare workforce, as well as alleviate the backlog of nursing school applicants at local colleges.

The grant from ESL will support approximately 645 students over three years.

According to the latest MCC Workforce Clusters Database Wage and Gap Analysis, there are 895 RN positions open in the Greater Rochester region. This compares to 667 open CNA positions and 315 LPN openings. For nursing school applications, local colleges are seeing 3.5 times the number of nursing school applicants than the number of spots they have available.

About ESL Federal Credit Union

With more than 100 years of locally-owned history, ESL Federal Credit Union serves as a full-service financial institution to more than 384,000 members and 13,200 businesses. Founded in 1920, the company provides personal banking, business banking, mortgage services, and wealth management services through its locally-based 23 branch network, telephone, mobile, online, and live chat center.

The Rochester-based financial institution employs approximately 900 people in the Greater Rochester area and holds more than $8.6 billion in assets. Since 1996, ESL has paid out 26 consecutive Owners’ Dividends to its members totaling more than $185 million. Since the creation of its Community Impact initiative in 2018, ESL has reinvested more than $40 million in grants throughout the community. The company has appeared on the Great Place to Work® Best Small & Medium Workplaces list for 11 years since 2010. ESL Federal Credit Union is headquartered at 225 Chestnut Street, in Rochester, and can be found online at www.esl.org.

Find and connect with ESL on Twitter (@ESLFCU) and Facebook.com/ESLFCU.

For more information, contact:

Rich Pulvino, APR
VP/Director, Marketing
rpulvino@esl.org
585.336.1009