Southwest Partnership
Workforce Development Committee
January 3rd 2018
7pm
Present
Ellen Levy
Ivan Leshinsky
Dan Morrison
Gabe Auteri
Kristine Balasz
Elizabeth Weber
Charles Armstrong
Jenny Owens
Sarah Muson
Bill Freeman
Ruth Farfel
Venroy July
Grid Presentation
The GRID is a the UMB Graduate Research Innovation District, they have space at the Lion Brother’s Building to help students and researchers be entrepeneurial thinkers. Offers workshops, graduate certificates, and degree programs out of the space. Going to have a number of series and have a variety of programming. There will be a number of UMB programs that will be offered in the space.
Culinary Architecture is the cafe in the space, working on developing a woman’s co-op with community members from the neighborhood.
Public hours are currently 8am-5pm, looking to extend hours when they can get staff for it.
Working on bringing students, co-workers, and community members in one space. Also having small business/office space and co-working space.
Community members are invited to attend the workshop series.
Bill: with the Maryland Small Business Development Center, based out of the GRID. Provide confidential consulting 101 which are free for the client. There are unlimited visits for small businesses and entrepeneurs. Provide courses for no or very low cost to support people interested in starting businesses. Bill has been with the MD Small Business Development Center for about seven years, previously was a vice-president in the financial services industry. A link to make an appointment is available on the GRID website.
Charles: would counseling services be applicable for non-profit organizations? Maybe some, but it is primarily for for-profit businesses.
Community Resource Event Update
Planning a community resource clinic for community members focused on expungement with other workforce development opportunities. Planned date is April 28th-29th (Saturday into Sunday) 6pm-6am. (The GRID could be a potential space). Doing Saturday into Sunday would have it tie into National Re-Entry Week.
Talking about using the parking lot at Hollins Market, but need to run that by the Hollins Roundhouse Neighborhood Association before officially confirming.
Gabe will go to the next Workforce Roundtable meeting to see who would like to be a part of it, still need to decide what the resources will be at the event.
There is also the potential for entertainment, and the Committee will be looking at getting funding to have food available. Venroy suggested amateur boxing and is looking into what the process would be–there is a process to get it approved as an official amateur boxing event. Will talk next month what the extra things will be and who will do them and if they are worth doing.
Caryn and JOTF have done two all night expungement fairs that were part of the CEASEFIRE which were pretty successful, have also done a number of other expungement fairs and have the logistics together–we would need to do the outreach. At the last meeting discussed letting community associations know and how that would work.
Dan: the technology would be easy to set up–we have printers and can set up an ethernet cable and would need to get some basic supplies.
Would work with ToolBank to get tables, chairs, tents, etc. There is need for privacy but there are privacy considerations but there is experience in how to do that. Focus on grassroots outreach with media attention afterwards.
Security is a big sticking point–JOTF uses private security, preference of the group is use private security and using the police could be problematic. Would have to explore the permitting process. Biggest variable would be the entertainment for the permitting process.
Caryn and Gabe are going to talk about where to get funding for the event and what the budget would need to be. No money would be exchanged at the event and there’s nothing that would be paid the night of.
Need to get a better sense of who would be involved–which providers, which neighborhood associations, which volunteers. Next steps are to confirm the slate of vendors and community partners.
Will also need to have regular sub-committee conversations. Dan will work on an electrical plan for the parking lot.
Next HRNA meeting will be the first Wednesday–Gabe will go to the Board meeting on Monday and then go to the association meeting for approval. This will be next week.
Charles: in contact with a lot of performing artists and musicians in the area. Elizabeth will connect Charles with Curtis. He also has a professional printing connection and graphic design.
Should talk about what to name the event: Kristine suggested Breaking Barriers Fair–want to have a name that will be clear what is being offered. The event will not be purely expungement but we are not sure of the details of who will be there.
Caryn already talking to neighbors who are excited. Would hope that we could provide access to as many resources as possible. Housing, health, social work etc. Can definitely provide information on why expungement is important and the barriers that is produced. Navigation services would be the best. (Bon Secours, Healthcare for the Homeless, etc). Elizabeth will schedule the sub-committee meetings.
Committee Elections
The Committee needs to elect a Chair for 2018. Dan suggested electing a vice-chair, anyone can vote for the vice-chair.
Kristine nominated Gabe and Gabe was elected by the majority.
Venroy nominated Caryn for vice-chair–Caryn agreed to do it and she was elected by the committee.
Announcements
Ivan: is working with an employer who is looking for qualified masons and carpenters that can pass a drug test and qualify for federal projects, would like to offer that resource to the Committee.
Charles: is looking to start a organization that focuses on bioethics employment assistance and training and networking, going to start tracking local community members onto institutional research board. Looking for ideas on how to best be involved. Caryn thinks that this is an important need. Also networking looking for training partners.
