Tribal Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) 2.0 Evaluation: Final Report

The purpose of this final report is to summarize findings from the five-year evaluation of the Tribal HPOG 2.0 Program. The report is organized to present findings on the structure and context, career pathways approach, and outcomes of the five Tribal HPOG 2.0 programs.

• The Tribal HPOG 2.0 grantees used a career pathways framework to provide post-secondary training to participants. All grantees implemented a career pathway in nursing, with opportunities for entry-level training and employment as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) and mid-to-higher level opportunities as a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) or Registered Nurse (RN). Some grantees offered other trainings in allied health professions, such as Emergency Medical Responses, Phlebotomy, and Medical Administrative Assistant.
• Grantees formed partnerships with a variety of training providers to deliver healthcare training across their service areas. Partners included educational institutions, such as two-year and four-year colleges and universities, as well as workforce development organizations that provided entry-level training programs.
• Grantees tailored academic and non-academic supports to meet participant needs. Academic supports included financial assistance for tuition and other training-related costs. To varying degrees, grantees and their partners provided academic advising, tutoring, and mentoring to help participants prepare for and complete training.
• Non-academic supports included transportation assistance, food assistance, emergency assistance, childcare assistance, and employment-related supports such as job search assistance. However, across grantees, there was low uptake of some of these non-academic supports, such as emergency assistance and childcare assistance.
• Tribal HPOG 2.0 participants were typically low-income women in their 20s and 30s, many of whom have dependent children. Most participants (61 percent) identified as American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN).
• The majority of participants (69 percent) completed at least one healthcare training. Of that 69 percent, 74 percent completed one training and 26 percent completed one training and enrolled in a second training. Eighty percent of participants who enrolled in a second training completed it.
• Forty-two percent of participants obtained employment after enrollment. The majority of participants (93 percent) who obtained employment after enrollment worked in a healthcare occupation (e.g., Nursing Assistant, Registered Nurse, and Personal Care Aide).

The Tribal HPOG 2.0 Evaluation team used a community-based, participatory research approach to examine program implementation by the five grantees and participant outcomes. The seven values described in the Roadmap for Collaborative and Effective Evaluation in Tribal Communities guided our efforts. The Tribal HPOG 2.0 Evaluation team collected qualitative data during four annual site visits to grantees. We conducted focus groups with participants and interviews with grantee and partner administrative staff, program implementation staff, employers, and participants who completed training, as well as those who did not complete training. Quantitative data comes from the HPOG 2.0 Participant Accomplishment and Grant Evaluation System (PAGES), a management information system used by all grantees to record participant characteristics, engagement in programs, and training and employment outcomes. More than 2,600 participants enrolled in Tribal HPOG 2.0; of those, 63 percent (1,681) consented to participate in the evaluation. Data in this report reflects only those who consented to participate in the evaluation.

Hafford, C., Fromknecht, C., Dougherty, M., Holden, C., Maitra, P., MacLean, K., & Chmelir, S. (2021). Tribal Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) 2.0 Evaluation: Final Report. OPRE Report 2021-201. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.