October 18, 2004

During a Workforce Summit on September 9, Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell announced that the city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County Career Centers would be co-branded as the Employment Connection, and stated that they were in the process of moving towards merging the workforce investment boards (WIBs) and forming a single, nonprofit agency. Campbell sees this collaboration as being key to assisting local businesses with One'stop services, and remarked that "we have every understanding to merge our affairs so that we can make sure we are training people for the jobs that are real for tomorrow, not just of today." She cited the poverty crisis in Cleveland and urged that, "Éwe develop this workforce board to ensure that those dollars continue to go to the persons to whom that are intended to go."

As part of this joint collaboration the city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County WIBs were awarded a grant from the Labor Market Information (LMI) Training Institute to implement an employer outreach project. Using labor market information, the goal was to create and implement outreach tactics to increase awareness and usage of the local One-Stop Career Centers among local businesses.

Cleveland/Cuyahoga teams created several strategies for local businesses to achieve this goal and unveiled them to the public during the Summit. The comprehensive employer outreach strategies included merging the city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County WIBS under one WIB and one operational structure with a new joint logo, name, and tagline; creating a labor market outlook report for Northeast Ohio; launching an on-line employer labor market newsletter; and convening key business leaders in target sectors to publish an outcomes report that encompasses key workforce issues and solutions.

The theme of the Summit was Inroads-Strategies for Economic Growth, which focused on small business plus key Northeast Ohio industry sectors: healthcare, construction, and manufacturing. The sold-out morning session presentation was attended by over 400 educators, economists, and public and private sector representatives and featured an overview of local workforce challenges, followed by break-out sessions in each of the focus areas.

Morning keynote speaker Christopher Connor, Chairman and CEO of Sherwin Williams Company and board member of event co'sponsor the Great Cleveland Partnership, described to attendees the successful work training collaboration between his company and the city of Cleveland. This initiative was begun when Campbell called Connor with an idea to train Empowerment Zone residents in lead pain abatement. Connor referred to the project as necessary "homework" and said, "I'm very proud of this new grassroots effort to provide basic skills training in the professional painting trade to economically disadvantaged residents in our community."

The Summit was supported in part by U.S. Department of Labor funds through the LMI Training Institute, as part of a grant applied for jointly by Cleveland and Cuyahoga, which were chosen over thirty other national applicants. "Cleveland and Cuyahoga workforce boards have exemplified how to do this successfully by bringing together targeted business sectors to work collaboratively to build a strong local workforce," said Joe Ward of the LMI Training Institute.

The Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services Bureau of Labor Market Information played a tremendous role in the project, adding additional grant money, assisting on planning committees, and by presenting labor market information to businesses and job seekers.

The Employment Connection held months of pre'summit workshops on resume writing, cover letters, and "working" a job fair, which resulted in a well prepared group of applicants. Approximately 4,000 jobseekers attended the Career EXPO portion of the Summit and attracted over 80 employers who were ready to hire from the well dressed crowd. Several delighted employers asked that day if they could be contacted for next year's event. One local hospital had four interviews at their booth and most of the other employers had four or five people each waiting to speak with them. Job seekers, interviewed by local news stations outside the Convention Center, had positive comments. They were impressed by the quality, diversity, and large number of employers represented.

For more information about the Workforce Summit 2004 or the project please contact Allison Motz, Director of the city of Cleveland Division of Workforce Development at 216.664.4673 ext. 350.