This Rural Communities Initiative Webinar included information on strategies for economic development through job creation in rural areas to improve service delivery to rural TANF programs. The challenge of improving economic development was identified by many Rural Community Initiative sites as one of the most critical issues facing rural organizations serving TANF participants. Presenters included Mr. Nick Goulette from the Watershed Research and Training Center, Ms. Elizabeth Ehrlich from the New York City Parks Opportunity Program and Denise Tolbert from the New York City Human Resources Administration, and Ms. Pauli Ojea from Green for All.

On July 9–11, 2007, in Memphis, Tennessee, the Urban Partnerships Initiative brought together employers and key leadership from 26 cities with the goal of continuing the exchange of innovative strategies and solutions for moving people from welfare to work, and identifying ways to enhance collaboration among TANF stakeholders, employers, and other community resources. During the event, the partners participated in panels, roundtable sessions, and other in-depth discussions about strategies for achieving universal engagement, improving work attachment, promoting job retention, and increasing wage advancement. For the city representatives, improving job placement services for their low-income residents is a critical, although extremely challenging, endeavor.

In this podcast, Teresa Davenport provides a framework for how O*NET helps with the transferability of skills in a regional re-employment context. Joining Teresa is Hope Clark, who provides a case study on how O*NET is integrated into TORQ, a software package that is used to target local jobs for people who have recently become unemployed.

This report is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and provides an overview of the working poor in 2007. Specifically, Black and Hispanic workers continued to be more than twice as likely as their White counterparts to be poor. Additionally, in 2007, only 1.3 percent of college graduates who were in the labor force for at least 27 weeks were among the working poor, compared with 16.5 percent of those with less than a high school diploma. Data also showed that women who maintain families were more than twice as likely as their male counterparts to be among the working poor.

This report was authored through the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. The researcher outlines the changing nature of women and work nationally over time, and in rural and urban areas. The focus of this research is five key changes: 1) the increase in women’s employment, 2) the recent “opting out” phenomenon, 3) the rise in women’s earnings and declines in the earnings gap, 4) the rise in the working poor, and 5) the decline in the traditional family structure of a husband as breadwinner with a stay-at-home wife. As an example, many rural families are relying more on the woman’s income to supplement the family’s earnings and are working in traditionally male dominated fields like farming and mining.

The Placing Individuals in Vital Opportunity Training (PIVOT) Program was designed by the Erie County Department of Social Services to bridge the gap between the recipients and the local business community and TANF. This program provides quality job opportunities for the employable TANF population while serving as a resource for the hiring needs of local employers.

Rural Academy General Resources

As part of the Rural Communiities Initiative, Washington County, Maine conducted a Soft Skills and Employability Site Exchange.

This report was written for the U.S. Department of Labor, Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and Employment and Training Administration. The Reclamando Nuestro Futuro (Reclaiming our Future or RNF) program is run by the Latino Coalition for Faith and Community Initiatives of Bakersfield, California to assist at-risk and adjudicated Latino youths to obtain needed education or training, to find employment, and to avoid involvement with the juvenile justice system. This final report resulted from an evaluation of the program which includes outcomes experienced by participating youth in the program.

Job seekers, students, parents, businesses, career professionals, and career counselors are encouraged to visit CareerOneStop -- the main "portal" site found at www.careeronestop.org -- for easy access to hundreds of resources. Here are just several:

• America's Service Locator connects people to One-Stop Career Centers providing employment and training services. It provides maps and driving directions. ASL also contains information on more than 20,000 resources and offices across the United States
• America's Career InfoNet is an electronic storehouse of national, state, and local labor market data, and interactive career tools (including a Resource Library) that help people make informed career decisions.
• Career Voyages provides career and labor market information for high-growth and demand-driven jobs. The site includes videos as well as links to actual job descriptions and jobs in local community.

Telephone access is also available to all. A toll-free helpline (1-877-US2-JOBS, TTY-1-877-869-5627) provides callers with a full range of basic information about workforce program services for both workers and employers, as well as information about the locations of One-Stop Career Centers and other social service offices. Information is available in over 140 languages.