Local Workforce Investment Board Partnerships With Local Libraries

Transcription

1 Local Workforce Investment Board Partnerships With Local Libraries Background The National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB) has joined with the U.S. Department of Labor s Employment and Training Administration, the National Governors Association, the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, and the Institute for Library and Museum Services to locate partnerships that Workforce Investment Boards have entered into with local libraries. As part of this effort, NAWB contacted 299 WIBs, asking them a few questions about their activities with libraries. The questionnaire was distributed on April 1, 2010, and on April 12, 94 had been returned, for a 31 percent response rate. Findings 1. Almost half (47%) of responding WIBs indicated that they had entered into partnerships with local libraries to deliver employment and training services. This is much larger than expected, and may reflect self selection among those that responded the survey, even though the introduction to the survey specifically stated that those without library partnerships should respond as well. 1

2 2. For those WIBs with library partnerships, the most frequent types of partnerships were sharing workforce information and electronic tools with the library system (68%); training library staff about employment and training resources available through the public workforce system (63%); and using space available at libraries for one-stop staff to provide services to library patrons or to host career events (50%). 3. Most (82%) of those not involved in operating library partnerships were interested in learning about them. 2

3 Survey s The following are the complete survey responses, minus the contact information questions. 1. Has your WIB entered into any partnerships with local libraries to deliver employment and training services? Percent Count Yes 47.3% 44 No 52.7% What activities has your WIB engaged in? Percent Count Locating one-stop career centers or satellite career centers in libraries 15.0% 6 Using space available at libraries for one-stop staff to provide services to library patrons or to host career events 50.0% 20 Partnering with libraries to share labor market and workforce information and develop solutions to meet the employment needs 40.0% 16 of patrons Sharing workforce information and electronic tools with the library system 67.5% 27 Training library staff about employment and training resources available through the public workforce system 62.5% 25 Familiarizing library patrons with career resources offered through the public workforce system or available electronically 45.0% 18 Other (see below) 27.5% We have a mobile career center that has scheduled stops at designated libraries throughout the county. 2. Senior Aides Digital Inclusion Program, senior aides community service work, and local library refers individuals needing resume or job search assistance to one-stops. 1) City of LA Library has created web pages with valuable content for jobseekers 3. 2) Pilot with one of our one-stops with local LA library to share resources where possible and make referrals - City of LA WIB exploring whether to scale this. Pending layoffs in City's staff, particularly Library Dept, may jeopardize this budding effort. 4. SYEP help during the summer. We have a locally funded SYEP program that has been going for about 5 years. 5. Small Business Assistance 6. Providing computer literacy training to library patrons 3

4 The Chicago Public Library has added the Illinois worknet link to their website, and the Chicago Workforce Investment Board staff has trained the library staff on the use of the 7. Illinois worknet portal. The Chicago Public Library staff has incorporated Illinois worknet into their classes on career exploration and job searching. 8. ARRA funding to provide summer youth employment as shelvers The Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board has established a community kiosk. The kiosk is a touch screen technological device that provides users with easy access to workforce information, job postings, housing and other public resources such as child 9. care and medical assistance. Along with the Milwaukee Public Library, we are currently partnered with Goodwill Industries, the Housing Authority, the Job Center of Wisconsin, and the Milwaukee Area Technical College. We are currently researching the possibilities of setting up virtual workforce centers in 10. libraries. 11. Bringing our Mobile One Stop to libraries Work Experience sites for program participants, specifically youth in summer youth 12. employment programs. The Virginia SHARE Network Program, a partnership between the One-Stop Career 13. Centers and faith-based and community organizations to extend the reach of resources into underserved communities. 14. Developing Share Network sites in 2 local libraries 15. Using libraries as work sites for summer youth participants; Formally adding the local library system as an official one-stop partner and will be 16. including them in the updated Memorandum of Understanding. 17. A library provides special literacy services to dislocated workers on behalf of the WIB 3. Comments from those engaged in partnerships with local libraries: We have an Atlanta local news feature on the mobile center and its library stops on DVD 1. from 2009 if you would like to see. We have worked with the library systems in both Stark and Tuscarawas County to educate library staff about services provided through the One-Stop system. In addition, the library systems have had us do presentations for their patrons that they advertise in the community. In addition, The Employment Source wrote a letter of support for the 2. Tuscarawas County library for a grant they were applying for to purchase employment related resources. A part of the grant was that they would then do presentations to the community that would include our One-Stop. They were awarded the grant and we will be doing a series of presentations with the library as a result of their receiving the grant We are just starting to work with our libraries and have supported their efforts to seek 3. grant funding to add onto their resource availability. There is much more we can do and will be working on this in the future. 4

5 This project was implemented in May 2009 and continues to grow. Currently the Milwaukee Public Library has a kiosk at the Center Street Library in Milwaukee and in the summer of 2010, it will implement another kiosk on the city's northwest side at the Mill 4. Road Library. The Department of Corrections is also partnering with the Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board to provide information on its employment programs and services for the ex-offender population. 5. Library partnerships allow us to have parking space for mobile one-stop career services. Utilizing libraries is not done routinely in our WIB area, but we did work with local communities in 2006 after receiving a National Emergency Grant to assist dislocated 6. workers whose placed of employment were closed due to flooding. Often, this assistance took place by placing career center staff in local libraries. We have set up a staffed Career Corner in one library as a pilot program (hope to add 7. more) that serves as a source of guidance and access to career development information and job search tools during hours our local Career Center is not open. Our main activity has been to locate Share Network sites in 2 local libraries. We provide orientation to library staff on services available through Michigan Works so that they can 8. assist patrons who have employment and training needs. We also orient library staff on the Michigan Talent Bank and related tools and resources, such as the No Worker Left Behind initiative for job seekers. The Main Library Branch in the city of Long Beach has designated a section of the library for patrons to search jobs, research LMI, and practice resumes, etc. It is a universal service available to all at this point. E.D. of Libraries and WIB E.D. have had initial 9. conversations this past year about the possibility of exporting more content to the Library, and the possibility of co-locating O-S staff on-site. First stop: a formal MOU between the two entities. We began this initiative with all the public libraries in our 6 county area where we do not 10. have a One-Stop Center AND with the branch libraries in our urban area. They love it. 5. For those that do not have partnerships with libraries, are you interested in learning about library initiatives? Percent Count Yes 81.6% 40 No 20.4% Comments from those interested in learning about library initiatives: 1. None. Within the last year, the Chester County Workforce Investment Board and the Chester 2. County Library have partnered to host workforce sessions at the County Library. We would welcome the collaboration in areas where a one stop is not within a 5 mile 3. area. 5

6 We did do a joint photo contest and exhibit entitled "Little Rock is Working" with the Cox Creative Center, a division of the Central Arkansas Library System, in which the exhibit 4. hung for the public for a little more than a month. This has not evolved into a partnership of delivering workforce related services, however. We do not have a contract with the libraries but we have delivered services including workshops on site to customers at the library. The staff of the library refer individuals 5. that are interested in employment and training activities to the One Stop (JobLink in NC) for services. We have a good relationship with the library staff and at this time do not need additional contact to be developed Our WIB has not entered into any formal relationships with libraries, however some reemployment services are being delivered at using various library meeting room spaces. 6. Because we serve a very rural area we have utilized libraries as a place to locate public 7 computers which can direct individuals to online Worksource Oregon services and assistance. 8. Both Partners MUST bring resource to the Initiative. 8. Comments from those NOT interested in learning about library initiatives: Our subcontractors have offices and resource centers in every county within our region. 1. In some cases we have 2 offices and we also have a mobile lab. 2. We might be interested at some time in the future but not at present. 3. No 6