Yellow Ribbon Career & Benefits Fair a Success!

On June 26th, the Clackamas Community College Veterans Center hosted a Yellow Ribbon Career & Benefits Fair for veterans and their families living in the Portland Metro Area (including SW Washington). This event drew an estimated 3000 attendees.

Among those in attendance were member of the Oregon National Guard's 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team who have returned home from a one-year deployment to Iraq.

Soldiers and their families had the opportunity to meet potential employers, learn about training and education programs, and connect to military service organizations. Worksystems staff were on hand to provide information about services offered through WorkSource.

This event is the first of its kind for Oregon Soldiers and is the template for more to come in the future. Thank you to everyone who shared numerous photos from the event with us as well as a podcast.

Congratulations to Project YESS graduates!

Worksystems is a proud sponsor of Mt. Hood Community College's Project YESS, a youth education and employment program designed to help prepare students for the GED, establish career goals, find a job and transition to college courses.


We recently attended the graduation ceremony and interviewed several students who were excited to talk about their experience with the program and their plans for the future. Thank you Adriana, Juan Carlos, Lizbeth, and Miguel for sharing your stories with us and best of luck to you!

Important Message from Senator Patty Murray on the Workforce Investment Act

Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate HELP Committee on Employment and Workplace Safety, discusses the re-authorization of the Workforce Investment Act.

2010 National Workforce Campaign "USA is Working!"

The National Association of Workforce Boards has partnered with Full Capacity Marketing and CBS News Community Partnerships to launch a national workforce campaign. With the current recession and ongoing unemployment, workforce development is on everyone's mind. This campaign provides an ideal platform for us to tell the story of how our system positively impacts the lives of so many across the country.

The campaign - USA is Working! - will leverage the media interest in the economy, unemployment, skill development and use of ARRA funding in an effort to garner support for the public workforce system. USA is Working! will focus on stories that describe the strategic focus of WIBs and the impact of the 2,800 One Stops that served 30 million people last year.

A campaign website (http://www.usaisworking/) will be launched in a few months that will have several key components:

1. CBS will produce a 60 second vignette explaining the role and value of WIBs and the video will be made available for us all to use.

2. The website will serve as a clearinghouse for success stories from around the country to demonstrate the impact of our system and help influence national policy.

3. The site will house Podcast interviews from Board Chairs from around the country.

4. The website will also contain an intranet accessible to WIBs with a media tool kit and online technical assistance to help insure consistent messaging and increase expertise in storytelling.

5. Links will be provided for job seekers/business/youth to local workforce resources including WIBs and One Stops.

6. A sponsorship section - not much detail available on this yet.

This promises to be a great campaign and Worksystems will definitely be participating. I encourage all of you to join in as well. Stay tuned for more information from NAWB on this effort!

Greetings from NAWB 2010!

It's hard to believe that this blog is now 1 year old (the first content was posted from the 2009 National Association of Workforce Boards' annual conference) but here we are posting again from NAWB 2010!

According to conference organizers, this is the first time in a while that all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and Guam have all been here together. The feeling this year is one of real camaraderie and mutual respect for the work that we do. After all, we're all fighting the same fight to help people get skilled up and placed in jobs during this awful economy in countless local communities across the country.

Jane Oates, Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, US Department of Labor, was an inspiring choice to kick-off the conference. We've been hearing for some time that the Workforce Investment Act will be reauthorized but she spoke with such optimism that it left the impression that it may be imminent. She stated that it will include a re-defining of the role of local and state boards because the language was "too vague" the first time around and that the role of business and economic development needs to be enhanced.

I really loved her challenge to the private sector members of workforce investment boards in the audience. She told them (in no uncertain terms) that they MUST use the system. Not doing so was, in her words, akin to a restaurant owner not eating the food. Businesses should be the biggest spokespeople we have and their use - or non use - of the system speaks volumes.

Other things to look for in the coming months include a re-invigoration of the Registered Apprenticeship Program, new opportunities for On-the-Job Training, a new community of practice for Rapid Response, and bringing Job Corp back to ETA with a real commitment to integrating YouthBuild and WIA Youth programs into the one stop system.

One last heads up: DOL's 2010-2016 Strategic Plan is currently under development and there will be ample opportunities for us to get involved.

More posts soon!