Rep. Foxx Recognizes Value in Business, Education at Catawba Valley Community College

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) has endorsed a recently announced partnership between Catawba Valley Community College (CVCC) and Affinity Living Group, whose goal is to design job training programs to expand Affinity employees' and cultivate potential corporate leaders, reports the Hickory Daily Record . "We want to talk with young people in particular but others too who are going back to get an education, maybe after they've lost their job, that they're not just going into a job, but they're beginning a career," Foxx says. "It's so important because in so many cases we have lost that concept of you're not going to do this job, your beginning job, forever." Affinity is the 11th largest provider of assisted living in the U.S., the sixth largest provider of Alzheimer's and memory care, and the largest senior housing provider in the southeastern U.S. "What we're trying to do with the college is develop an academy specializing in assisted living and trying to take the concept of education in the workforce and step it up from the lowest level when you come out of high school and progress them all the way to a nursing degree if that's their desire," says Affinity CEO Charlie Trefzger. Affinity Executive Vice President Denis Rainey notes staffing shortages are of particular concern. "With the partnership we're going to have here, trainees can start out with us as a personal care aide, CNA, they could become a med tech, they could become a supervisor, and they could become a care manager," he says.