Workforce Committee
Elizabeth gave the Committee update: they are focusing on improving and strengthening community relationships and outreach as well as working with the anchors on their local hiring goals.
Announcements
Joanne: Bike Repair program for teenagers, operates chiefly on the east side through an OSI Fellowship, are willing to come to other neighborhoods if an organization can guarantee space to store at least five bicycles between the sessions. The course is a six week bicycle repair course, offered to young teenagers and the kids earn their bikes after they complete the program. The total cost of the program is $1000, Joanne has identified one donor who is willing to pay half of it. (BYKE) CEC is thinking about a safety rodeo.
Desiree Year Up Evening Information Session is once a month–connect with Desiree to sign up for the announcements. It’s held at 2600 Liberty Heights Ave. Desiree will send out the Open House specific flyer.
UMB is hiring public safety officers (6-7). There will be two recruiting open houses at the CEC one Wednesday July 5th 6pm, Thursday July 6th 12pm. Candidates will be able to apply on site. The job will start in September and full time.
Jeanne attended the McCulloh Homes resident counseling meeting–received a grant to install a playground and are looking for volunteers.
Todd: seventh cohort will start in August, ages 18-25 six week free training and will send out the information to the group.
Second Chance: recruiting for next deconstruction program June 25th, have slots for community members who are part of the Casino Impact Area. Ages 18 and over. Zip codes are 21230 and some of 21225 (Pigtown, Cherry Hill, Lakeland, down to Federal Hill). Objective is to work for Second Chance and be promoted through the organization. Start at $10, crew leaders start at $13-$18 an hour. Need to be able to travel to DC Metro area. There are 10 slots for the casino impact area, and 7 slots for ex-offenders.
Lou: There is a program starting the 26th from women interested in construction–Sisters in the Brotherhood 8 slots are available. Two national providers of construction training: Jobs for America and Worknet Solutions are coming to Baltimore
Local Hiring at Horseshoe Casino
Horseshoe Casino Hiring Project. ECC lets MOED know who was placed. There are a lot of open positions. Need to get back in touch with Casino to see if partnership can be more depth. People will register with Rachel and she will make the referral. They are in the early stages with their partnership to ECC. There is a hiring preference for people we send. Partners at ECC are continuing to follow up on positions esp food service, bartending, etc. They are also willing to train for table games. This is an opportunity to expand our anchor reach. The next anchor to look at for local hiring is Bon Secours, which might be complicated because they have built in workforce development in Bon Secours Community Works.
Would be helpful to have Derrell from the ECC to come to the meeting to share about MOED’s work with employers. He has been invited to attend this meeting.
Rachel’s contact information is rgoodrich@oedworks.com.
Anchor Local Hiring Update
Community members experiencing homelessness–what should be the policy around the zip code requirement? A suggestion was to make sure that someone is verifiable homeless and registered with a program. Travis: Paul’s Place requires a letter of verified homelessness to receive services. The Roundtable is in favor of waiving the residency restriction for community referrals.
Program Adjustments: ask folks to come to the next meeting with suggestions on how the local hiring programs could be changed to improve the anchor institutions local hiring procedures and program. Travis–issue might be the lack of referrals. There may also be a concern that there is a stigma attached to residents from the local area. Marvin: is there a standard for referrals or screening? Yes, there is a screening interview. This is something that we could use community member support for. Marvin-still thinks there should be a time sensitive process. Travis: can we set people up to be ready to go before jobs open.
Washington DC Field Trip
In the process of investigating the Nehemiah Project, Lisa met a woman named Yvette Banfield from the Coalition of Housing and Economic Development in DC (city-wide). They have a workforce roundtable the first Wednesday of every month from 10-12:30. The first Friday of every month they visit practitioners. This might be interesting as a field trip for those who are interested–if you’re interested let Lisa directly if they are interested in going.
Looking for support for Workforce Wednesdays–YO would be available for at least one Wednesday a month.
