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Camden City Initiatives Committee
November 19, 2010
MINUTES
Attendees:
Dr. Richard Harris, Rutgers Camden, Walter Rand Institute
Carla Janoff, Careers USA, Chair
Raymond Lamboy, LAEDA
Robert Schiavinato, UOSS
Gloria Smith, Genesis School of Business
Staff:
Sherriea Gorden
Fa. Joseph Messina
Jeffrey Swartz
Welcome and Round Table Introductions
Carla welcomed attendees and called the meeting to order at 9:15 AM.
Prior to the meeting being called to order, members were in open discussion surrounding Camden City’s status as the most dangerous city in the country. Several members asserted that this is typical, that only the bad news about Camden receives publicity and that there is a need for more balance and positive information to be provided to the media on the many positive aspects of the city. Members agreed that the city needs an “Image Council” to determine ways to improve the city’s image.
Other discussion was held surrounding the need to assist Mayor Redd with implementation of some of the workforce strategies noted in the Transitional paper. With minimum funding available for needs of the city, this committee could supplement the Mayor’s efforts and work closely with the Mayor’s staff around these important issues. Jeff Swartz advised members that many committee members who work for the state are on furlough today and unable to attend. Jeff made contact with Mayor Redd’s Chief of Staff, Mike Wallace, and asked for his assistance in scheduling a meeting with Mayor Redd. Mike agreed to check the Mayor’s schedule and get back to him; Mike said it will be difficult to get a meeting prior to the end of the year. Members agreed we should use the interim to prepare a concept paper that would lay a mission for the WIB Camden City’s Initiative Committee including the establishment of a “Workforce Development Council” which will work diligently with the economic development efforts of the city, potential private funders and city educators to begin the process of establishing a workforce equipped to meet employer needs as the city transitions.
Ray Lamboy volunteered to put together a draft outline of the concept paper using the Transitional paper as a guide and build on the original Transitional paper’s strategies. A suggested mission statement included the following: The mission of the Workforce Council is to “prepare workers for the needs of Camden City’s employers”.
Robert Schiavinato stressed the importance of utilizing the expertise of committee members to gain support of the city’s administration to embrace the workforce council and the benefit of the partnership. Work must be completed on building the city’s capacity, and we will all need a committed focus on implementation and a unified effort. Bob also stated we need to identify the probable “In Demand” occupations that training will be needed in and invite the training providers of such training to participate in a focus group.
In the absence of Mike Willmann, Jeff reported, Mike is coordinating a meeting with Paul Katz, Dean of the new medical school. Jeff suggested Chair, Janoff join the meeting if possible. The purpose of the meeting would be to discuss Cooper’s human resource needs and gaps that exist. The idea would be to partner with them to train residents for the positions that will be available by their anticipated opening in Fall 2012. Other individuals that should be involved include Terrance Leverett, Manager, NJ Workforce and Tyrone McCombs of Rowan University.
Carla Janoff suggested we also consider micro loans and how to establish a fund that will assist entrepreneurial development. Gloria Smith added that often times a business can be established with as little as a few hundred dollars, she gave the example of car detailing or a janitorial service.
Next Steps:
The committee will take a second look at the Mayor’s transition plan and discuss where the jobs are and how to create additional jobs for city residents.
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 10:30 AM
Submitted by:
Sherriea Gorden
WIB Committee Coordinator
Camden City Initiatives Committee
September 14, 2010
MINUTES
Attendees:
Gary Divens, Camden County College
Gregg T. DeBaere, Atlantic Coast Communications NJ
Frank Filipek, Jr., Camden County Resource Center
Dr. Richard Harris, Rutgers Camden, Walter Rand Institute
Carla Janoff, Careers USA, Chair
Amir Khan, Nehemiah Group
Micah Khan, Nehemiah Group
Raymond Lamboy, LAEDA
Tony Lingo, Camden City
Angel Osorio, Camden County Office of the Prosecutor
Robert Schiavinato, UOSS
Gloria Smith, Genesis School of Business
Michael Willmann, WMSH Marketing Communications
Jennifer Young, Verizon Communications
Staff:
Sherriea Gorden
Father Joseph Messina
Jeffrey Swartz
Welcome and Round Table Introductions
Jeff welcomed attendees and introduced Carla Janoff and explained he has had meetings with the Mayor regarding a partnership to address workforce issues. Jeff stated he is pleased that Carla Janoff is heading the committee and partnership with the City to improve the lives of residents.
Chair Remarks
Carla welcomed new attendees and thanked ongoing member for returning to serve as part of the committee. She looks forward to everyone’s input and perspective as we move forward in working to address issues by those most in need within the city. She hopes the committee can broaden its mission as we go forward and then asked members for reactions to the Mayors transition document which had been sent out ahead of the meeting. She solicited opinions on what the committee’s priorities should be and how we would coordinate the efforts of the organizations on the committee and share the passions of the members to begin to determine projects for the committee to begin to work on.
Mike Willmann commented we should focus on all county residents and jobs throughout the region, not just in Camden. Our responsibility is to employers and job seekers which go beyond the city limits. Angel Osorio expressed the need to expand inner city residents’ outlook for employment opportunities beyond city boundaries but work with economic development within the city to provide options for residents.
Gloria Smith added, with the unemployment rate in Camden twice that of the county, we must remain conscious of the special needs of inner city resident. Her organization, Genesis School of Business works with residents from all parts of the county, but finds, in order to prepare city resident for available employment opportunities, they require additional resource to fully prepare them for employment.
Ms. Smith would like to see initiatives created to address the specific needs of city residents. Ms. Smith shared with the committee an initiative her organization made with the hospitals to train one-hundred and eleven individuals. Of the 111 individuals, 47 gained employment at Virtua and Lourdes Health system. The remainder gained employment with hotels and restaurants. Ms. Smith stated many opportunities were lost to work with the hospitals because of the barriers faced by many of the trainees including: transportation, low credit scores, drug use, and lack of a high school diploma. She worked with the hospitals to gain a concession that if the individual did not have a high school diploma, they could still get trained in a position, hired, and would have up to a year to obtain a GED. maintain employment and become a contributing member of their community. She also stated, more initiatives like this one should be made with local employers; she requested members consider other possibilities to address these issues and determine a strategy going forward, possibly through a sub-task force that could be created to address her concern.
Rich Harris commented that while working with the Rand Center, he has found, and recent research shows, that working first with the employers (to determine their specific workforce requirements) leads to the necessary training for the “demand occupational training”, then on to finding interested individuals, providing the training and filling the gap, creating a pipeline to fill positions.
Rich further added he feels it is necessary to compile research on city residents and determine educational levels and what percentage of the population have a re-entry issue, need child support, lack identification documentation, need driver license restoration and other barriers.
Angel Osorio suggested we bring the school district to the table to work with the committee on the educational piece of the equation.
Raymond Lamboy, LAEDA indicated he is a member of the school board and can attest to the fact the new superintendent of Camden Schools is taking a methodical approach in revamping the system starting with the elementary schools and working her way through the high schools. He feels that until we influence a change within the lower grades and provide them with the skills early enough to train to work with the L-3’s of the world we are looking at an undereducated work force within the city to meet the needs of today’s employers. Long gone are the jobs that require only muscle, and those positions are being filled by employment agencies. Adult population vs. youth, in-school and out-of-school must be addressed; however, many programs are available across the country offering alternative education venues to address out-of-school youth.
Action
A brief discussion was held regarding community needs assessments and many members stated this information is already available. Rich Harris stated he will locate some empirical information and share with the committee.
Ray Lamboy, announced that he had Co-Chaired the committee that produced the Mayor’sTransitional report and wanted to give an overview of the report, clarifying the intent of the document. Ray explained team members initially began their work on the document by taking a 30,000 foot view of the economic landscape of Camden. The team drilled down to the fact that there is no comprehensive economic development strategy for the development of Camden City. The committee then looked at industry demands and the capacity of the city to handle the influx of development and the city’s capacity to recruit large and small companies and the difficulty to execute this mission.
Then, looked at the workforce and the resources available to train a workforce and determined the system lacked connectivity. After speaking with many providers that offer life skills training and occupational training; he found many confirmed that even after receiving the respective training, many individuals remained with issues and barriers as discussed previously. Ray stated the team agreed a continuum of services needs to improve the chances of individuals with barriers reaching self sufficiency, starting with the city’s youth to try to avoid them ending up in the generational cycle of poor education and the inability to be qualified for a desired occupation. With the right intervention at a yound point, youth will be afforded an opportunity to better choose their future and prepare themselves for the next workforce generation, capable of competing locally and regionally.
The team determined the key component of success is the development of a comprehensive strategy which will connect the dots and reduce the barriers. He cited faith based involvement and the WIB TMCC ITS project as part of the strategy in moving forward. Ray stated looking forward, he and team members determined the largest growing industry within the city over the next twenty five years will be construction as the city will grow. If we take children in the fifth grade and train them to the strategy by preparing them to be carpenters, electricians, and plumbers, along with other green jobs within the construction industry, they will fill the demand occupations of the city’s future.
Tony Lingo commented that, unfortunately, due to budget constraints, the Mayor has not yet been able to implement any of the recommendations within the report. The Camden City Initiatives Committee can work to support the Mayor in implementing one or more of the recommendations as stated but asked the committee to give consideration to the following:
- Camden has a large population of individuals between 40-55 years old within the city that are unemployed and finding it difficult to secure new jobs. Tony stated the city has its first housing development for individuals 55+ that need training and employment opportunities.
- Many Hispanic men 16 or older turn to the streets to earn a wage, beginning a cycle difficult to break. These individuals need other options to earn a sustainable wage.
- The re-entry population is vast and expected to grow. We should work diligently to serve this potential pool of manpower.
- The city has a policy that for many contracts employers must hire a certain percentage of labor from within the community. This policy is rarely enforced as the city lacks the resources to effectively monitor worksites. The city has one enforcement officer to do the job. He suggested we become the oversight agency/“watchdog” of sorts and ensure the local residents gain access to the employment opportunities within their neighborhoods.
Carla Janoff requested Tony Lingo compile a list of the employers and construction operations that have the jobs and are not hiring local individuals for review at the next meeting.
Ray Lamboy took the floor to review page 6 of the document under Recommendations.
Ray stated that while the document recommended identifying and realigning a city staff member, this has not been implemented. Jeff suggested that the WIB’s Camden City Initiatives Committee might be the solution for supporting the Mayor’s effort to meet this objective.
Compile a listing of current workforce development programs and providers.
Robert Schiavinato indicated that while the One-Stop offers wrap around services many seeking the services need case management and stabilization services. The Camden County One-Stop system is over burdened with the large number of TANF cases to serve; it becomes a time factor, which doesn’t allow complete focus on other populations. Bob said we need to coordinate information and resources to address a city whose population is made of 80% of youth. Bob suggested we work to develop policies and assemble the guidelines that will afford youth an opportunity to train and become high skilled workers.
Carla felt that, although at this time, the One-Stop may be bogged with TANF cases; the One-Stop is a functioning entity that has growth capacity. She suggested training case managers to have knowledge of additional resource and programs; the One-Stop could serve as a starting point for referrals to agencies capable of addressing the customer’s barriers.
Gloria interjected, for individuals with multiple barriers the system is set up to punish them, which is why many times individuals are reluctant to divulge the totality of their barriers fearful of being sanctioned. Once a TANF or GA customer is sanctioned, their problem grows instead of being resolved. She suggested developing a “real” system to address the “real” problems of our customers.
Micah Khan informed the attendees of such a program within the Nehemiah Group which addresses barriers such as drug addiction, homelessness, and occupational training by providing case management and coordination of services. He shared a new initiative of coordinating services and referred members to the Greater Camden Renaissance Group’s website for additional information.
Father Messina explained we need to make the faith based community a part of the solution and work closely with the school and judicial system to address the needs of inner-city youth. Carla suggested using professionals and business owners within the suburbs to mentor city youth and even adults. She said the key is getting the word out to them on how to get involved with such an initiative.
Pastor Amir Khan, Nehemiah Group described a successful initiative going on in Philadelphia, where a consortium of hotel owners implemented a ten- year tax to fund the on-going training in the hospitality industry sector and the possibility of replicating in New Jersey. The Philadelphia initiative trained 1,300 annually. Rev. Khan discussed the need to improve the system in place to establish a new business in the city, citing red tape and a string of issues making it difficult to do business with the city under the current policies, often resulting in the perspective business owner establishing elsewhere with fewer hindrances. He reiterated the anticipated construction boom may be the solution for the next generation workforce including providing opportunities for non/mid/high-skilled and ex-offenders.
Dr. Harris and Ray Lamboy thanked members for sharing problematic issues but requested they use the document as a strategic tool and keep the committee’s focus on addressing policy as intended, utilizing committee brain power in support of the Mayor’s efforts to coordinate resources.
Robert Schiavinato, UOSS, shared with members that Vineland High School has an on-site workforce investment board representative working within the school and asked if we have a liaison within our schools. Jeff explained we have been working with the school system at every opportunity and in partnership with the One-Stop partners, have conducted job fairs at the high schools. The WIB has a strong interest in the success of youth transitioning into the workforce arena, prepared to meet the challenges of city and regional employers.
Action
Bob will obtain additional information on the structure of the relationship between the WIB and school, how the designated individual is paid and other pertinent information and update the committee. Father Joe Messina requested we work with the Catholic schools as well as many of the students enrolled are not of catholic tradition and should not be left out.
Jennifer Young made an interesting correlation between youth and parents saying the school is a positive vehicle to reach students and parents and suggested creating a parent engagement providing unemployed parents an orientation of the One-Stop system and available supports. With economic recovery imminent, we could work with these parents to ensure that are employable when the economy recovers as well instill in the children that attending college is an expectation and not the exception or that it is just for certain individuals. She suggested connections with non-profit organizations such as Habitat for Humanity or St. Joe’s Carpenter Society where individuals can earn a wage and a skill while “doing good” and then have a better chance to use the attained transferable skills to re-enter the workforce even if they have a criminal background or not. Carla suggested this is an excellent way of thinking about building “a bridge to employment. Jennifer also suggested creating partnerships with all the non-profit organizations to work together instead of remaining independent.
Angel Osorio suggested we develop a foundational base by
- Assembling Statistics
- One-Stop Capacity
- Connecting with School Districts
- Determine/Update Provider Resources (who is talking to whom, where gaps exist)
Assignment:
For the next meeting, please bring information on what is working, share best practices at the next meeting.
Ray asked that we work from performance in determining the best of the best to initiate policy discussions. We need to remain a collaborative and not an official entity.
Next Meeting:
The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 19, 2010, 9:00 AM at the WIB office.
Distributed by Tony Lingo:
Monthly Employment Report 2010 “State of Urban Unemployment.”
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 10:40 AM
Submitted by:
Sherriea Gorden
Executive Assistant/Committee Coordinator
In the effort to address issues affecting Camden City, the Committee took the lead in planning and overseeing development of a grant proposal to explore technologies to support greater utilization of public transportation.
§ Committee is composed of Camden City officials and 14 Camden City organizations.
§ Committee developed outreach plan for transportation grant; this ensured significant outreach into Camden City.
§ Designed a (FBO) Faith-Based Foundation Collaborative.
§ Established a task force of Camden City officials and Faith-Based leaders to develop framework.
§ FBO Foundation will be a 501 ( c ) 3 with members from the Faith-Based Community who are providing transportation services.
§ Tools have been developed to assist FBOs with determining what level of participation is best for them.
§ Identification of potential incentives to reduce the costs to FBOs of providing increased levels of services.
§ As a result of the committees efforts the Workforce Investment Board received funding in the amount of $413,451.
§ In July the WIB submitted a proposal to the Department of Transportation to implement Phase 2 of the United We Ride/Mobility Services of All Americans.
§ Camden County Workforce Investment Board received an award of $700,063 to deliver proficient and affordable transportation services to the transportation disadvantaged within the county.
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