Brevard Workforce To Launch Community- and Faith-Based Organization Initiative

09.13.2011 /// www.brevardworkforce.com
Communications Director Denise Beasley
321.394.0512 /// [email protected]

Rockledge, FLORIDA – Brevard Workforce, a local network of coordinated employment services, will officially launch a new initiative to to partner with local community- and faith-based organizations during a special event on Thursday, Sept. 15 at the Brevard Workforce career center in Rockledge (295 Barnes. Blvd.). The event starts at 10:30 a.m.

Dozens of community and faith leaders from throughout Brevard County plan to attend the event, which will serve as a tutorial for community- and faith-based organizations to create and operate job clubs within their respective parishes and communities.

“The goal of this new initiative is to provide local community- and faith-based organizations with the training and technical assistance they need to support their parishioners,” said Brevard Workforce president Lisa Rice. “This support will not only address the tangible needs of job seekers, but also the guidance they need in dealing with the emotional and psychological challenges of unemployment.”

The event comes on the heels of a push by the U.S. Department of Labor to connect more with community- and faith-based organizations.

Among the guests expected to attend is Alexia Kelley, Deputy Director at the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.Ms. Kelley is also a former director of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnershipsat the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“Across the country, faith-based and community-based job clubs are playing a significant role in getting Americans back to work,” said Ben Seigel, deputy director at the Department of Labor Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. “Brevard Workforce is on the cutting edge of marrying the strengths of the public workforce system with the strengths of the faith-based community to help displaced workers get back on their feet and chart a new path to success in the labor market.”

The event is being held at Brevard Workforce’s new career center in Rockledge, Florida. The Center is a key result of National Emergency Grant funding for assisting more than 9,000 local aerospace workers displaced by the closure of the Space Shuttle Program.

This new initiative is also partly due to a request from the White House and key NASA leaders for assistance engaging new partners to help aerospace workers process their grief and loss, so they can move on in their job search.