Gay
Plair Cobb
Chief Executive
Officer
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CAREER CENTER
GROWS
While we expand and
update our downtown center to offer more
resources, please find us
at:
675
Hegenberger Rd. Oakland
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Learn More
About PIC
Call:
510-768-4498
Visit Our
Website www.oaklandpic.org
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Recruiter greets job seekers at
Eastmont job
fair.
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Holiday Greetings
By Gay Plair Cobb
PIC chief executive
officer
Dear Friends,
We at the PIC
hope this newsletter finds you enjoying your
holiday season with friends and
family.
As you know, all too many of
us -- including family members and neighbors here
in Oakland, in California, and around the country
-- are out of work and seeking opportunities for
the new year. An especially good sign is President
Obama's renewed emphasis on jobs, as well as
continued education and training, for those who
are unemployed or facing the prospect of job loss.
Looking back at 2009, PIC staff
is celebrating a record-breaking year with 2,000
job placements made through the Career Center at
Eastmont Town Center, operated under contract with
the Alameda County Social Services Agency.
Here at PIC we are renovating our
One-Stop Downtown Career Center at 1212 Broadway,
operated on behalf of Oakland's Workforce
Investment Board, as we prepare to join
forces with the state Employment Development
Department (EDD) in an expanded center that will
offer updated, comprehensive services for the many
job seekers who need them -- now more than ever.
This new downtown facility will re-open in April
of 2010; in the meantime, customers are being
served at EDD's comprehensive Career Center
located at 675 Hegenberger Road or at any of the
centers that are part of the EastBay Works system.
For a complete list of centers, please visit
www.eastbayworks.com.
Once again, we send you warm
greetings for the holiday season and look forward
to seeing you in the coming year!
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CAREER CENTER AT
EASTMONT PLACES 2000 IN 2009
Roger Staten, a Private Industry Council
job developer said he felt a little like Santa
Claus when he tallied up the number of jobs he'd
helped
 people secure and found he
had placed more than 2,000 unemployed people in
jobs in 2009.
Staten works with clients at the Eastmont
Town Center, one of two career centers PIC
operates under contract with the Alameda County
Social Services Agency (SSA).
While Staten says he's proud of the 2,080
full-time placements he helped secure for the
unemployed, he promised to do everything he can to
double the number of job placements in
2010.
"I hope
more employers will support our mission to provide
accessible, high quality training and employment
services to them and the local residents," Stanton
said, explaining that he hadn't realized that he
had made such a large number of placements over
the last year.
"The number
of placements did not hit me until I helped a
refugee get a job making $25 an hour. It was his
encouraging words that made me take notice of how
many people have received jobs and how much I
actually helped change lives," he said.
Oakland's Private Industry Council partners
with the Alameda County Social Services Agency
(SSA) to operate two SSA career centers, one in
North Oakland and the other in East Oakland.
For more information on PIC's career
centers operated under contract with SSA, call
510-208-0903 or 510-568-8349 or visit the website,
http://www.oaklandpic.org/special-projects.html .
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COMMUNITY CELEBRATES YOUTH
JOBS
MORE THAN 1,000 OAKLAND
YOUTH
WORK DURING
SUMMER Kwan'Asia Cox Smith had lost a job, was
homeless and needed a hand up. What she got from
Oakland's Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP)
was a lift that took her higher than she had
imagined - she went up to the rooftops, where she
is now a trainee installing solar
panels.
This 19-year-old woman, who
loves to work - as long as the  work is meaningful - told her
story to a gathering October 29 that celebrated
the success of the SYEP, through which more than
1,000 young people age 14 to 24 worked for at
least eight weeks, earning $8 per hour. Funding
came from the Barack Obama administration. The
Oakland Private Industry Council and Oakland
Workforce Investment Board administered the
project.
More than 200 people came to
the event at 1212 Broadway, including
representatives of most of the 13 agencies
responsible for providing work and training to the
youth, as well as the two dozen organizations they
partnered with. City and state officials were also
there, including State Assemblymember Sandre
Swanson and Oakland Councilmembers Jane Brunner,
Rebecca Kaplan and Larry
Reid.
Among the greatest hits
of the afternoon was the presence of the students
from Dewey Academy currently enrolled in the
Future Chefs Academy fall program. They
prepared and served a gourmet spread that included
pasta salad, pear glazed shrimp, deep fried shrimp
and more. Over the summer, youth from
the YMCA of the East Bay Urban Services, in
partnership with the Spanish Speaking Citizens
Foundation, studied the art of cooking and worked
as chefs through the Future Chefs Academy - a job
training site for the Summer Youth Employment
Program.
Crystal Jackson, who coordinated the summer
program for the Private Industry Council, said she
was thrilled with the event and particularly
struck by the maturity of the youth workers who
attended the event. "They didn't sit around
and talk to each other," Jackson said. "They were
able to interact with the adults and talk about
their experiences over the summer. That was
impressive!"
Kwan'Asia Cox-Smith was
among the youth speakers. She talked about what it
meant to be part of a team of young people at work
in a field as new and dynamic as solar energy. She
said the young people she trained with helped each
other out. She said it wasn't intimidating to be
the only woman on the job. "It felt like a
family," she said.
Cox Smith is now
employed by Sun's Free Solar as a trainee. "I was
willing to work hard and found people who believed
in me. That was motivating," she
said.
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JOB SEEKERS
GET PERSONAL ATTENTION
AT EASTMONT TOWN CENTER
JOB
FAIR
Unemployment rates in Oakland were
at 16.8 percent in a recent state reporting,
down from a high of 17.6 percent in August.
But statistics like that mean little
when you're out of a job.
 Three hundred thirty-one
people seeking work came to an October 15 job fair
at the Eastmont Town Center sponsored by PIC's
Career Center, which operates through the Alameda
County Social Services Agency. All hoped to find
work that day, as they lined up to hand their
resumes personally to job
recruiters.
"Do you need experience
at a bank to be a teller?" one woman asked Sonja
Medeiros, Citibank assistant vice president in
human resources.
"No - if you have
work experience handling cash you can work as an
entry teller" Medeiros said. And people having
sales experience can qualify for a personal banker
associate position, she
added.
Vanessa Carter was able to
leave her contact information at the American
Nurse Corporation, whose representatives had to
cancel their shift at the fair.
"I
want a job in infant care or nursing, something
that will open up my horizons" Carter said. "I
love working with the disabled." Carter said she
had extensive life experience in that line of
work, having cared for a physically disabled
grandmother and a mentally disabled child, who was
a relative.
One young man with a
bachelor's degree said he was looking for a job in
management, but had no work experience. "They say
that my degree doesn't count," he said mournfully.
"They say I need to work other jobs
first."
A steady stream of job seekers
lined up at the Kaiser Permanente table, where
Catherine Munoz and Andrea Taylor talked to the
public about openings at various facilities.
"We're so large, we always have openings," Taylor
said, pointing to a list of jobs that included
full time radiologic technicians in Union City and
on call EKG technicians in Walnut
Creek.
"Is there anything in
housekeeping or maintenance?" one young man asked.
Taylor said there isn't now, but told him to check
back in a few months. "Jobs are listed on line,"
she added.
Lines also
formed at the Walmart table, where they were
recruiting associates and at Archco Staffing,
where they were looking for Coliseum parking
attendants. People also were waiting to talk to
Pam Musico of DDs Discounts, who was looking for
customer service associates for the Christmas
holidays.
Archco will be hiring more
than 200 Eastmont Mall Career Center clients,
Walmart will hire 24; four job fair attendees have
interviews with Citibank and four others have
interviews with DD's Discount Store, and a number
are under consideration for Kaiser positions,
according to Bob LoBue who manages the Eastmont
Career Center on behalf of PIC and Alameda County
Social Services.
 This wasn't a large job fair,
but job seekers said they appreciated having a few
minutes to talk to the recruiters. "I didn't think
I had the qualifications for a bank teller," one
young woman said with a grin, "But now I know that
I do."
LoBue reported that, although
a number of businesses had been unable to be at
the job fair, job seekers signed up and were
interviewed later. A number of people got hired
including: 13 people hired at RMD Services, 22 at
Berger King, 17 at Macy's, 15 at A Moment's
Notice, 2 at Bright Star Nursing, 14 at McDonald's
and 37 at Ross Discount Store.
Eastmont Career services are
restricted to CalWorks and General Assistance
recipients. (Note that PIC's One-Stop Career
Center at 1212 Broadway -- temporarily at
675 Hagenberger Rd. -- serves everyone looking for
work.)
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CHINESE DELEGATION STUDIES
JOB SEARCH STRATEGIES
AT PIC CAREER CENTER
As in the U.S., China is
facing growing unemployment as a result of the
global economic crisis. A 17-member
delegation from the People's Republic of China
Employment Promotion Department (EPD) toured the
Oakland Private Industry Council (PIC) Career
Center October 16. The Bay Area stop was one leg
of a U.S. visit that would continue to Chicago and
Washington D.C. "We hope to learn
from you about how you deal with the economic
recovery," said Wang Yadong, EPD deputy
director-general speaking through translator Julie
Li, of the U.S. China Exchange Council, the
organization that arranged the
visit.  Delegates spent the week
visiting government offices responsible for
housing, transportation and employment
development. They toured the 1212 Broadway Career
Center, and heard presentations by PIC CEO Gay
Plair Cobb and other PIC staff on the Career
Center operation. When it came time
for questions, members of the delegation showed a
special interest in learning about systems in
place to upgrade workers' skills. Cobb outlined
some of the work accomplished by career centers:
teaching people to use computers for
their job search and resume writing; helping
job seekers improve English language skills,
and helping high school drop outs get
GEDs. "Who can use the downtown
one-stop career center services?" one delegate
asked. "There's universal
access - anybody can come here and get help," Cobb
replied. The visitors asked how
federal funds got down to the local level and were
particularly interested in hearing how the
government verifies that its funds are spent
correctly. Cobb talked about how U.S.
funds go through the state Employment Development
Department and are overseen locally by Workforce
Development Boards. She talked about federal
reporting requirements that organizations
receiving federal funds to train workers must
adhere to, noting, for example, that fund
recipients must report the number of people who
visit their sites each year and the number who get
jobs through their efforts. Fund recipients
then follow up, detailing how long individuals
hired hold onto the job. Cobb
described the situation in Oakland with more than
17 percent unemployment, explaining that
unemployment falls disproportionately to youth 18
to 24 years old. People in this age group are
often unprepared for the job market; some are
school dropouts "and now they must compete with
older layed-off workers with good work histories,"
Cobb said. Delegates wanted to know
which is the best method of connecting job seekers
and employers: job fairs, where multiple
employers collect resumes from interested
applicants or recruitment by an employer at a
career center? Bob LoBue, PIC's
director of business services, told the delegation
that when employers come on site, his staff
prescreens applicants so that those who meet with
the employer have the basic skills the employer is
s looking for. He said this is the most efficient
way to match job seekers to employers.
Yadong said that China, like the
U.S., has put together stimulus packages. Much of
the money is funneled into building roads and
bridges. The government is also "encouraging
people to start their own small
businesses," he said. One
problem China faces is that many of the people
seeking work come from the rural areas. Most of
them have been farmers, so they don't have skills
needed for jobs available in the cities.
"In China, we have the same
problem as you. The workers don't meet the skill
levels that are required," Yadong
said. | |
MSNBC AT PIC CAREER
CENTER
REPORTER INTERVIEWS PIC
CLIENTS/STAFF ON UNIQUE CHALLENGES FACING
UNEMPLOYED AFRICAN AMERICANS
While figures for Oakland show a
November jobless rate of 16.8 percent,
unemployment for African Americans is historically
much higher. MSNBC reporter Allison Linn and
videographer John Brecher came to the Oakland PIC
Career Center Nov. 13 as part of a story they are
doing around this phenomenon.
"We visited the center to talk
with jobseekers about the disparity in
unemployment rates between African-Americans and
the population as a whole, and how the recession
has impacted this already troublesome problem,"
Linn said. "We spoke with and videotaped several
jobseekers, who shared their personal experience
in the job market and talked about how the
recession had impacted them, their families and
their community."
 Among those Linn interviewed
were Career Center Manager Anne Chan and Bill
Newman, who works at the Career Center two days
each week through the Department of Corrections.
"They wanted to know how the
feeling is [among PIC clients] with the budget
cuts and the prospects for finding jobs," Newman
said. "They wanted to know how I help clients find
work."
Newman, who works mostly with
formerly incarcerated persons and parolees, said a
large part of his job is helping clients access
services, such as training and educational
opportunities and substance abuse programs.
Anne Chan said she also
introduced the reporter and videographer to
several clients whom they interviewed.
"We really appreciated that you
were able to accommodate us, as it allowed us to
hear from people about their own experience," Linn
told the PIC newsletter. "That really helped us
understand these issues beyond the official labor
statistics and data we see from researchers.
It was also really nice that you were able to
provide us with a room to conduct interviews,
since we find that people are more comfortable
talking in a private environment."
You can find the
story at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34068710/ns/business-economy_at_a_crossroads// | |
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