Southwest Partnership
Workforce Development Committee
December 6 2017
7pm
Present
Ellen Levy
Kristine Balasz
Gabe Auteri
Venroy July
Caryn York
Elizabeth Weber
General Committee Update
The Committee discussed the history of the role and formation of the Committee–it was separated from the Education Committee earlier this year and the Committee’s current goal is to see where it can add capacity and effort to existing workforce development programs and activities in the area. There is currently a workforce roundtable, made up of providers who share information and resources, and Southwest Works, a partnership between the SWP and the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development which works directly with community members to connect them to jobs.
The two big focus areas for the Workforce Committee are advocacy, especially around anchor institution local hiring, and outreach–both around existing and new job opportunities and identifying community needs and assets around workforce.
Outreach
The Committee discussed possible outreach strategies. We haven’t done a lot of targeted outreach in the past around workforce development, because of a lack of something tangible to offer people, but that is not the best strategy. Caryn suggested having an expungement/community legal resource clinic as a way to be able to do a really targeted outreach strategy (around participants for the clinic) as well as a way to find out what people were looking for in terms of work, and what they needed. The Committee discussed possible resources, locations, and dates for the event and decided on late April (offering the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of the last week as options for volunteer attorneys). There will be a planning meeting December 21st at 7pm. Workforce Roundtable providers and others will also be invited.
