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Eleven low income residents of Duluth are currently being trained for entry
level welding positions through a partnership of SOAR Career Solutions, Lake Superior College, and the Department of Employment and Economic Development’s Minnesota Job Skills Partnership (MJSP). They are the first group to receive training through a $139,975 MJSP grant awarded to SOAR Career Solutions to serve a total of 90 people in the next two years.
An innovative aspect of this job skills training partnership is that all participants receive pre-training workshops at SOAR Career Solutions. All eleven participants have attended STEPS, a pre-employment workshop focusing on the hard-to-teach soft skills that employers are looking for such as positive attitude, motivation and self confidence. They’ve also attended a Career Development Workshop to learn job searching and basic employment skills.
On May 14 they officially started welding classes at Lake Superior College taught by Randy Washenesky, AWA Certified Welding Inspector &
Educator. By Aug 8, they will have received 224 hours (worth $2,500/per person) of welding training—funded by the MJSP Grant.
SOAR will continue to work individually with all participants providing job searching assistance after the welding training is completed. For all 11 participants, this program is their ticket out of poverty. It offers them the hope of a steady good paying job plus the pride of gaining marketable skills that will contribute to society.
“SOAR is an excellent example of the right people, in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing,” says Dr. Kathleen Nelson, President of Lake Superior College.
The participants were selected because they have an income at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines ($20,820/year for a single person) and they have met the education and employability criteria.
On May 22 at the recent grant signing ceremony, Mayor Don Ness praised SOAR for strengthening Duluth’s work force by “tapping into untapped resources” in the community.
Over the next two years, ninety lower-income workers in the Duluth area will have the opportunity to be trained for entry level manufacturing and industrial sewing positions and move up the career ladder to better-paying jobs. The next MJSP training is in Manufacturing Technology July 14 through August 14, 2008. The beauty of the MJSP program is that participants receive training in job skills that area employers are actually seeking.
“These funds will improve our ability to help low income residents to become self-sufficient and increase their incomes,” said Rebecca Ellenson, Executive Director of SOAR Career Solutions. “The training funded through this grant will lead directly into jobs with livable wages and advancement opportunities.”
In addition to MJSP Funds, other leveraged resources include United Way of Greater Duluth, Community Development Block Grant, The Northland Foundation, The Ordean Foundation plus a $20, 000 grant from The Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation. These resources provide the pre-employment, post-employment and support services needed by the target population for success in both the training and the workplace. Covered are the cost of client intakes, vocational testing, pre-employment and career development workshops, support services fine-tuned for each participant’s needs and employment networking.
Jon Obrecht, owner of Express Employment Professionals works with over 175 businesses in the region to find them qualified employees to build and sustain their operations. He was involved in the program design and will be making presentations to classes about what students can expect when they begin working in industrial jobs. One of the key challenges many of his business clients face is finding candidates who have both the hard skill set required to operate equipment or use tools and the soft skill set required to perform a productive day’s work on a continuous basis.
“I believe SOAR Career Solutions plays a critical role in developing the soft skills of potential employees in this region. I am confident that the vocational skills coursework at Lake Superior College together with the pre-employment and soft skills development services SOAR Career Solutions already provides will be of great value to our business clients and to the candidates who complete the program.”
“It’s a joy to see the work SOAR does for the Duluth community,” said Paul Moe, director of MN Job Skills Partnership at the grant signing on May 22 for the $139,975 grant.
Representatives of CORP Steering Committee receive 2007 Best Practices Award. Left to right: Traci Laughlin, guidance counselor at NERCC; Jessica Ostrowski, CORP Coordinator; Rebecca Ellenson, Executive Director of SOAR; Governor Tim Pawlenty; Frank Jewel, Executive Director of Men as Peacemakers; Lee Buckley, Special Advisor/Office of the Governor |
SOAR Career Solutions received The 2007 Best Practices Award recognizing the success of its Community Offender Re-entry Program (CORP) pilot project. During 2006, CORP served 25 males released from Northeast Regional Corrections Center (NERCC) who returned to Duluth with barriers to housing, employment, and education or a history of mental health issues or chemical dependency.
Without re-entry services, the majority of ex-offenders will return to criminal activity. CORP provided those services with collaborative partners such as Men as Peacemakers, Arrowhead Regional Corrections, and Lake Superior College. In CORP’s first year, 10 ex-offenders were employed full time, 3 were employed part time, 12 obtained stable living environments, and only 3 re-offended with new criminal charges.
The award was presented to SOAR’s Executive Director, Rebecca Ellenson, by Governor Tim Pawlenty at the White House Regional Conference in Minnesota on August 9, 2007. Representatives of the CORP Steering Committee were also present.
For more information, visit their website.
Soar Career Solutions · 205 West 2nd Street · Suite 101 · Duluth, MN 55802
Phone: (218) 722-3126 · Fax: (218) 722-4617 · Email: info@soarcareers.org
This website was made possible through a grant from the Duluth/Superior Area Community Foundation. We are grateful for their support!
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