As a pilot site selected to participate in Illinois' Shifting Gears (SG) initiative in 2007, Oakton Community College (OCC) partnered with Presbyterian Homes to develop a bridge course to prepare a cadre of their employed Certified Nurse Assistants (CNAs) to enter college-credit level prerequisite courses to a Practical Nursing program. Oakton Community College is a comprehensive community college serving 450,000 residents in suburban Chicago. Presbyterian Homes is a large, continuing care retirement community with over 1,600 residents among five campuses in Chicago and nearby suburban areas. Shifting Gears is a workforce development initiative sponsored by the Joyce Foundation and in Illinois, also supported by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO). In the first phase of SG, 10 community colleges received grants to develop bridge courses to provide low-skilled or low-income adults with the training necessary to prepare them for high-demand, middle-skill jobs that provide family supporting wages. Three high demand occupational clusters were targeted in the SG initiative: transportation-distribution-logistics, manufacturing, and health care. Like in most areas, the suburban Chicago area in which this practice was located suffers from an inadequate supply of skilled and credentialed healthcare workers to meet the demand. This paper describes the outcomes of this program. (Contains 2 footnotes.)