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Indiana University Health this week officially opened its $1.4 million remodeled space for its Mosaic Center for Work, Life + Learning, an effort by the Indianapolis-based health system to provide life and job skills to community members to prepare for stable, in-demand health care careers, including medical assistants, pharmacy technicians, and public safety officers.
Rodney Francis, executive director of workforce development for IU Health, said the Mosaic Center combines the health system’s workforce strategy and its community engagement efforts.
“If we’re going to be committed in this community, then we need to be intentional about engaging the local talent and tapping into community residents who may not have had an opportunity to connect to this work,” he said.
The Mosaic Center was founded in 2021 with support from the Lilly Endowment and is part of IU Health. The center recently moved from the 16 Tech Innovation District to a larger facility, 1776 N. Meridian St., that is more intentionally designed to meet their needs.
Mosaic focuses on many entry-level jobs that involve direct patient care, such as operating room assistants, and many that don’t, such as guest relations associates. Some jobs are available for those without high school diplomas. The program also seeks to help employees advance beyond the entry-level position.
About 50 people have advanced through the Mosaic program to gain employment at IU Health. The Mosaic Center now has about 75 active members working on career preparation.
IU Health said the new space will serve as a community hub to equip residents with the resources, knowledge and coaching needed to build a lifelong career in the healthcare industry.
The Mosaic Center has computers for members to use for educational purposes or to create and update their resumes. There are small rooms for one-on-one coaching sessions and a large meeting room.
Tasks include creating a resume and providing tips for job interviews, as well as determining the best fit for specific jobs that will enable the employee to thrive in the long term.
“We will be working with our IU Health talent acquisition folks as well to pull the community in and to help them with those [job] applications,” said Mel Cruse, operations manager of the Mosaic Center. “We have our coffee bar for folks, to really be able to kind of just come in and feel welcome and kind of relaxed. And that’s why we have all the different types of seating.”
Francis called the Mosaic Center’s life and career coaching its “secret sauce.”
“With IU Health being a huge system to navigate, negotiate, it is helpful for them to have someone who can make their journey with them, to answer their questions, help them with barriers, to make sure that they’re really presenting themselves the right way,” he said.
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