Read the press release…

"Marlena is our first recipient and very deserving of this special recognition,” said outgoing council president Tom Phillips. He initiated the award for WDC board members who exemplify superior commitment and outstanding service to the organization.

“She continually went above and beyond,” added Phillips. “She not only serves as second vice president and co-chairs the Youth Committee, but also created a timely Youth Employment Survey for legislative outreach, and was a major contributor to the WDC’s report to Congress on an ideal 21^st-century workforce system."

The U.S. Conference of Mayors WDC is a group of workforce boards from large cities across the U.S.

“I’m very honored and humbled by this recognition by my peers,” said Marlena. “We will continue to work with the U.S. Conference of Mayors to support workforce development across the U.S. and strengthen our own efforts here at home.”

Share your ideas for making WorkSource even better!

The WDC welcomes your recommendations and new ideas for making the WorkSource Seattle-King County system work better to meet the needs of all jobseekers and employers, particularly in these challenging economic times.

The WDC will incorporate your ideas as we develop our Request for Proposals this spring, which will determine our providers of Workforce Investment Act services beginning in July 2012. This is a competitive process through which the WDC awards federal Workforce Investment Act funding.

Possible WDC RFP themes:

• Efficiency, lean system, serve many with highest quality
• Scale, but not at the expense of quality
• Business services & sector focus; job connection, business development
• Diverse populations; youth, vets, LEP individuals, homeless individuals, individuals with disabilities, mature workers, long-term unemployed

Please submit your input as a comment below. Important information:

• All comments will be reviewed by the WDC before being posted, so there will be a delay before you see your feedback on the discussion board.
• We will post feedback that is professional in tone, relevant to the topic, and appropriate for all audiences.
• You must enter your name and email address. However, we will remove this information before the comment is posted so you are assured of anonymity.
• If you would prefer not to have your input posted, just say so in your comment. All submissions will be read by the WDC, even if not posted publicly.

Thank you for participating—we look forward to hearing from you!

Helpful links:

WorkSource Seattle-King County website (WorkSourceSKC.org)
WorkSource System Org Chart and Map

Connecting to Employment explains the work of a career navigator in two models, one in which the navigator works to directly support people in training, and one in which the navigator is a resource and relationship builder among agency staff and employers.

The WDC’s Homeless Employment Navigator partnership is an example of the latter, “staff resource” model. As described in the report, navigators trained WorkSource Seattle-King County staff in working with homeless jobseekers, while also helping people living in transitional housing sites to bridge to WorkSource employment services and job training.

The former, “customer resource” model is exemplified by the Automotive Career Pathways project at Shoreline Community College. A WDC-funded career navigator works with students to help them find financial aid, connect with services in the community as needed, get jobs and keep increasing their training after the program.

To learn more, read the press release or go to the report.

The topic is “Got Stress?’” The WDC was invited to speak on the effect of stress on jobseekers and resources available to help.

Details below.

HealthCare Series: Got Stress? [click to follow link to registration]

Town Hall Seattle  |  1119 – 8th Ave, Seattle [view map]
Registration:  11:30 a.m. | Program: 12:00 – 1:30 p.m.

Buffet Luncheon: $20/CityClub Members | $25/Guests and co-presenters | $30/General public
Coffee & Dessert: $12/CityClub Members | $15/Guests and co-presenters | $18/General public

Featuring:

• Marlena Sessions, CEO, Workforce Development Council
• John de Graaf, National Coordinator, Take Back Your Time
• David Levy, Professor, University of Washington Information School

o Susan B. Winston, LICSW, Director of Counseling Services, Sound Mental Health

Moderated by: Laura Musikanski, Executive Director, Sustainable Seattle

Have you achieved the ever elusive “work-life balance”? As a nation, we seem to be experiencing more and more stress and many cite stress as the main cause of mental and physical health problems. According to the International Labour Organization and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. remains the only industrialized nation without mandated annual leave. Americans work more and take less vacation time all while increasing in productivity a whopping 400% since 1950. What role does our current economic climate play? Is our stress simply work related, or does the increased access to information and technology also play a role? How big a problem is stress for us as individuals and for our society? Is medicine the answer or are social and behavioral changes needed? How can we combat the negative impacts and ultimately reduce the stress in our lives? Bring your own questions and join us as we strive to find the right balance!

What’s more, $146 million will be generated for our economy by the adults and youth placed in jobs by Workforce Investment Act programs during just one program year.

The WDC commissioned the study by Economic Modeling Specialists Inc. (EMSI) to examine the economic benefits generated by federal workforce dollars in the community of Seattle-King County.

The researchers determined the lifelong earnings of the customers placed in jobs by in Program Year 2009 to determine the effect on the economy. This “income effect” is $80.1 million for the 247 job placements in the WIA adult program; $52 million for the 328 job placements in the dislocated worker program; and $13.8 million for the 123 youth who were placed—for a total of $146 million.

Press release…

Full report…

Announced Nov. 16 by Governor Chris Gregoire, the awards recognize projects that benefit both workers and the economy. SODO Inc., a federally funded collaboration between the Workforce Development Council, King County Work Training/YouthSource, South Seattle Community College, and the Manufacturing Industrial Council of Seattle, allows low-income young adults to gain a foothold in the trades.

Press release…

More on the SODO Inc. program…

Almost 250 young people have participated in the program since it began in 2009. The students, 18 to 24 years old, come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Many lack a high-school diploma, speak English as a second language or are ex-offenders.

Program components include:

• Four weeks of hands-on classes at the trades-focused Georgetown campus of South Seattle Community College. The youth learn a wide variety of skills—including tool use, safety, first aid, and basic work habits and attitudes—while learning about apprenticeships as a path to successful careers in the trades.
• Paid four-week internship with a private employer to apply learning on the job. More than 50 employers have hosted interns (who are paid by the program). Most are small companies in the fields of manufacturing, marine, and general trades.
• Individual support through a case manager who provides one-on-one mentoring and career/education planning, as well as assistance with program-related expenses such as boots, tools and transportation.

Thanks to a generous grant to the WDC from the Butler Family Fund, leaders from Houston, Miami, Portland and Phoenix will join Seattle in this first-ever convening of Workforce Investment Boards like the WDC and their partners in housing and homeless services.

The goal is to more effectively connect people experiencing homelessness with the employment services and resources of the public workforce system—such as WorkSource Seattle-King County.

Each city is bringing a representative from the workforce and the homeless world to together share their work in their own communities. The five cities will form a national advisory group that will reach out to additional cities to spread their successful strategies.

In Seattle, the WDC partnered with Building Changes to provide navigators who would work with people living in transitional housing and connect them to the employment resources of WorkSource. The WDC was honored for this innovative partnership by Building Changes in September 2011.

The WDC and Building Changes have worked together over the last several years to increase access to job training and improve employment outcomes for people who are homeless. 

In spring 2010, the WDC and Building Changes partnered to promote system integration between housing and employment services via the Navigator Pilot Project.

Through this project, employment navigators reach out to families in transitional housing in King County and bridge them to employment services at WorkSource or the WDC-funded Homeless Intervention Project. The project also aims to enhance the WorkSource system’s understanding and capacity to serve customers who may be experiencing homelessness.

The video below highlights Building Changes’ collaboration with the Workforce Development Councils of Seattle, Snohomish County and Tacoma and pays tribute to their leadership and commitment to homeless jobseekers.

The Compendium of Promising Practices Profiles describes the WDC’s partnership approach and outcomes to date as one of about 15 projects nationwide chosen through an expert and peer review. (The section on the WDC starts on page 61 of the report.)

Following a tour of Pacific Fishermen—which has been building and repairing boats in Ballard since the 1880s and which is a strong partner of the SoDo Inc. youth program funded by the WDC, as well as the WDC’s Maritime Sector Panel—Marlena emceed a short program of speakers.

Watch the video! (23 minutes)

Senator Murray Press Event – 4/26, Seattle from Margret Graham on Vimeo.

Marlena thanked Sen. Murray for being “a champion for working people not just here in Washington state, but around the country” and for fighting for federal funding for job training and youth employment.

Sen. Murray discussed her newly introduced Promoting Innovations to 21st Century Careers Act and the pending reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act—the key legislation that is both a mandate and a critical source of funding for the WDC and the WorkSource (one-stop) system.

Two young people also spoke about their career paths to the maritime industry. Jeffery Harris is a 23-year-old who participated in SoDo Inc., a partnership of the WDC, South Seattle Community College, King County YouthSource and the Manufacturing Industrial Council to introduce young people to the trades.

Thanks to the program, Jeffery now works at Sea Tac Marine, a barge company in the Georgetown area, and has a bright future ahead for himself and his young son.

Kealan Haynie began in maritime as he began high school, thanks to the Maritime Academy at Ballard High School. Following the four-year program integrated with regular high-school classes, Kealan completed two years of marine engineering at California Maritime Academy before his internship at Pacific Fishermen turned into a full-time jobs.

Finally, Doug Dixon, general manager of Pacific Fishermen Shipyard, talked about the company’s commitment to hosting interns and helping to bring young people into the maritime industry—which is facing an aging workforce and retirements that will take off a large part of the skilled and experienced workforce.

As Marlena said in her closing remarks, listening to and involving employers is the key to opening opportunities for young people and other jobseekers. “Thanks to the Workforce Investment Act, we have a built-in way to involve employers in making decisions about workforce investments.”

Maritime careers website: For more information on maritime careers, check out the WDC’s MapYourCareer.org!

Press coverage of the event:

• KOMO TV story
• Seattle P-I post
• MyBallard.com post
• Ballard News Tribune article