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February 2014 In This Issue Director's Letter: HCJFS has an Impact on the Economy HCJFS Staff Keeps Up with Additional Medicaid Demand OhioMeansJobs Center to Double Number of Job Recipients Child Care Team Generates No Complaints Child Support Tops $130 Million
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OhioMeansJobs Center on Pace to Double Number of New Job Recipients
Tawnya Carpenter loves helping people keep their new jobs.
Finding a job’s difficult enough, but keeping it’s hard if you don’t have a way to get there. Carpenter ‘s help bridges the gap between starting the job and that first paycheck. “We’re doing wonderful things for people,” said Carpenter, who has worked for Hamilton County Job & Family Services for eight years, the last 1 ½ at OhioMeansJobs Cincinnati - Hamilton County. “The transportation is one less thing they have to worry about.” There’s a lot of good news coming out of OhioMeansJobs Cincinnati - Hamilton County these days. After helping 665 people find work between July 2012 and June 2013, OhioMeansJobs Cincinnati - Hamilton County leaders hoped to improve on that number. Already – just six months into this fiscal year – the center has helped more than 820 people find jobs. “So we’re well on pace to double that 665 of last year,” said Tim Scott, career coach manager and employment services supervisor. “We’re able to show that we can compete, and even beat, the private sector sometimes. We’re very proud of that.”
The center is now funded by $4.3 million in Workforce Investment Act dollars. Of that, $2.6 million goes to the OhioMeansJobs center on Central Parkway, where unemployed people can get help with everything from their resumes to advice on interviewing. The rest of the federal money goes to five agencies that contract with the county to provide help for youth looking for jobs. Helping people find jobs “is very rewarding,” Carpenter said. “My job isn’t the same every day. I like everything about it.” She tells the story of one of her clients who struggled to find a job because he had some convictions on his record. OhioMeansJobs Cincinnati - Hamilton County helped him become a truck driver. Now he’s got his own rig and a steady income. “He’s doing great,” she said. “And he loves what he’s doing. It’s nice when you hear that someone is successful and happy.” |
And she’s good at it. In
the past year, she helped 365 clients get to the jobs OhioMeansJobs
Cincinnati - Hamilton County helped them find. She’s the one who makes sure people have help –
bus passes or gas cards – to get to their new jobs.
Hamilton County took over
OhioMeansJobs Cincinnati - Hamilton County in 2012 after the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton
County searched for ways to deal with large cuts in Workforce Investment
Act funding, which is used to operate the center. With fewer dollars to
spend, city and county officials felt some of the money being paid to a
private vendor for operation of the center would be better used for
services. They chose JFS to operate the center based on an agreement
that $500,000 being spent on operating costs would instead go for direct
services to employers and the unemployed.
