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• Elevate America
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• Recovery Act
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• TRIAD

WDCSC is working with community partners to ensure that ARRA funds are spent quickly and transparently to serve the workforce needs of Snohomish County in the most efficient and effective manner. WDCSC is focusing much of its spending of ARRA funds on the following key areas: 1) providing workforce development services to Snohomish County residents, 2) building workforce development system capacity, and 3) increasing the capacity of local education and training providers.

WDCSC Recovery Act
Funding and Participation Activity details

WDCSC Recovery Act Activity

Various programs funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) investments are producing results in retraining and employment.  Worker retraining, digital literacy, and employment search assistance are providing opportunities to help people move into high demand occupations.  

Increased Training Capacity
Training capacity continues to increase across Snohomish County through partnerships with local community colleges as six group training classes in high demand occupations are in full swing and enrolled to 90% capacity.  These classes are infusing over $300,000 in Federal Stimulus dollars into training programs including Nursing, Safety Inspection, specialized software training in IT and Engineering fields, Six Sigma and ISO Quality Management training.  These programs are in addition to WDCSC’s regular training and are completely funded with American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Federal Stimulus dollar, and will serve approximately 90 persons.

State of Washington Incentive funds add to training capacity
WDCSC was awarded over $290,000 in Washington State stimulus funding made available through Governor Chris Gregoire and the state legislature thorugh Senate Bill 5809, passed last session.  This funding will add an additional 72 seats for training in high demand occupations including EKG Monitor Tech, Industrial Design & Manufacturing Certification, Residential Energy Audit, Business Intelligence/SQL, and Six Sigma Black Belt certification.  

New Stimulus-funded programs coming
The next ARRA-funded program to assist youth, P.O.W.E.R. Up, began January 1, 2010 and will run through to June 30, 2010. P.O.W.E.R. Up is an intensively focused program serving 16 to 21 year olds to experiencing housing barriers, and will assist participants in attaining their GEDs.  A consortium of community partners was selected through an RFP process to provide services;  the consortium includes Arbor Education & Training, LLC, Center for Career Alternatives (CCA) and LKI Family Services.

An Energy Efficiency Training Grant will provide almost 500 individuals with career training in high demand-energy efficiency job.  This is funded through a $3.9 million ARRA grant awarded to the Northwest Energy Efficiency Council.  $629,589 will go to train Snohomish County workers through a partnership between Edmonds Community College and WDCSC. 

Award Winning Summer Youth Employment Program is a big hit!
The Summer Youth Employment Program received excellent reviews from participants and local businesses as well as state and local government agencies. This program received the 2009 Youth Group Award!   It was also recognized by the Washington State Department of Vocational Rehabilitation for serving 81 young people who reported having a disability. There were 240 youth, aged 16 to 24 who worked at paid internship opportunities throughout the County.  127 work sites, including private companies, government agencies, local nonprofits and community college work-and-learn projects provided opportunities.   Relying primarily on individual placements, participants were matched to work sites that most closely aligned with their interests both in the public and private sectors.    

During a recent program audit, the youth participants were asked the question:  If you could say one thing to President Obama about this program, what would it be?” The following are four enthusiastic responses:

• "Thank you for helping me out and giving me an opportunity to do something positive with my life."
• "This is a good experience for any kid to have, especially in these economic times.  It builds character and responsibility and it will help me get a job in the future. "
• "Good job opportunity, good investment, good program!"
• "Thank you. I found employment that I really liked.  I think he [President Obama] should continue the program."