A $3.5 million grant from the Walmart Foundation will aid the American Red Cross in training students for healthcare assistant jobs, including home health care workers.

The organizations will help 2,500 students across the U.S. receive training for entry-level healthcare careers via the Red Cross Nurse Assistant Training (NAT) program so that they may become Certified Nurse Assistants to work in home health care, assisted living, nursing homes and hospital settings.

The NAT program is available in the Connecticut cities of Bethel, Bridgeport, East Hartford Waterbury, New Haven, as well as more than 100 other locations in 18 states.

The Walmart Foundation provided the grant for training, which will primarily help women below the poverty line, as part of the organization’s Global Women’s Economic Empowerment Initiative. 

A goal of the initiative is to help 200,000 U.S. women from low-income households access job training, education, career counseling and mentoring to increase their employment opportunities. 

“Walmart is making it possible for Connecticut residents to get a solid foundation and a head start in the healthcare field through our Nurse Assistant Training course,” said Stacey Lucibello, program manager. “This will make such an impact—as many as 10 times the number of annual graduates from our program would like to take the course but cannot afford to do so.”

Written by Jason Oliva