Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Agencies focus on helping unemployed
By Kim Ring TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
STURBRIDGE — Across Massachusetts there are hundreds of organizations striving to get people back to work and representatives from many of those met yesterday at the Sturbridge Host Hotel & Conference Center to share how they’ve been accomplishing their goals through partnerships with one another.
The Commonwealth Workforce Coalition hosted the event called “Sharing Skills — Building Connections, Partnering for Opportunity” which opened with an address from Joanne F. Goldstein, secretary of the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
About 400 people attended from a variety of social service agencies and spent the day choosing from 33 workshops, including sessions on how to market an agency’s clients and assisting with transitions from college to the workforce.
“Things are getting better,” said Ann Donner, who is program manager for the Commonwealth Workforce Coalition, but she added that there are still a lot of people who have few skills and who earn low wages that continue to have problems finding and retaining jobs.
In one of the workshops, staff members from the agencies were taught to display their clients in a positive light when seeking employment for them.
The “pitch clinic” offered them a chance to “sell” their clients and organizers talked about how companies who take a chance on these clients and have a positive experience might be more willing to hire through the agency again.
The community college system has also become an integral part of getting people back to work and encouraging those who find positions to continue their education so that can retain their jobs. Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester has been successful in using federal grant funds to assist in workforce training and development and Springfield Technical Community College has partnered with Futureworks Career Center. The career center now notifies the college about what types of skills employers seek and the college will work to offer related classes so that students will be ready to take those jobs.
Peter Beard, senior vice president for impact at United Way Worldwide and Kevin Jordan, vice president for National Programs, Local Initiatives Support Corp., joined Loh-Sze Leung, executive director of SkillWorks: Partners for a Productive Workforce, for a panel discussion at lunch.
Mr. Jordan said that in developing partnerships, it is important to consider the outcome and what goals the agencies are trying to achieve by bonding with each other.
“Why is it better?” he asked. “How do they hold each other accountable for achieving more complex outcomes?”
Wendy Lauser, director of impact services at Pine Street Inn in Boston, said she often finds her staff dealing with unemployed homeless people and she’s learned that getting help to newly homeless people in the first 90 days is the most effective.
“Sooner is better,” she said, “Engaging people very quickly produces positive results.”
Her agency makes contact with homeless people and gives them bags with information. She said the agency has flexible staff members who will meet with clients anywhere they are comfortable.
What might surprise some people is that about 51 percent of those served by Pine Street Inn’s programs have a high school diploma and 23 percent have some college. More than half admit to having mental health issues or substance abuse problems, and it is important that in helping them find employment, they do not feel judged, she said.
Laurie Rose, who is the coordinator for the Pine Street Inn’s Workfirst program, recalled a successful client who told her it was the first time she’d been treated as something other than a drug addict.
While unemployment is a major problem and the focus of the conference was on working together to get people employed, homelessness often goes hand in hand with the problem.
© 2012 Worcester Telegram & Gazette Corp.
URL: http://www.telegram.com/article/20120515/NEWS/105159995/1237