Presentation Minutes


Hire253

  • Kelly Blucher, Goodwill
  • An almost full report out
  • 542 people attended
  • 50% female and 50% male
  • Race (highest representation at the top)
    • White – 159 folks
    • Black – 106 folks
    • Multiracial – the next group
    • Others
  • Referrals – so many agencies – so collaborative
    • (She mentioned a bunch speaking really fast, and I didn’t want to leave anyone out, so a generic kudos to everyone –ed.)
  • Ages (highest representation at the top):
    • youth (16-24) – 104 folks
    • 35-44 – next most numerous
    • 55 and over –
    • others
  • Education Levels
    • Most had some college but didn’t finish – says folks need support while they are in college
    • Next largest group had less than high school diploma – so we need GED classes to support these folks
  • 404 of the 542 people would like follow up help an resources from organizations. – that is a big lift – now that we have it broken up, how can we all work together to reach back and continue working with them.
  • Over 100 veterans attended
  • Barriers (highest number of response at the top)
    • identified that they were currently experiencing homelessness – 150 folks
    • didn’t answer why.
    • Criminal background
    • Working poor
    • Single parents
  • Top fields – had 14 staffing agencies.  Fedex hired the most folks, but the staffing agencies were big.  Staffing is a good way to re-enter the workforce      
    • Office admin
    • Construction
    • Warehouse
    • Staffing agencies
  • Have only contacted 20% of the 80 employers in attendance, and have 154 verified hires so far (wait a minute, my neighbor was just telling me that “those vagrants are too high and too lazy to get work” – are you sure that is right, Kelly… -ed.)
  • Committee put in a really big effort to contact employers and let them know the purpose of the event. 
  • October event – will work with employers to get them prepared to work with folks with criminal backgrounds. 
  • Have a 25% hire rate so far –better preparation next time can increase that to 50% (as if that isn’t good enough…-ed).
  • Transportation for newly hired folks is important – sound outreach provided some.  Need way to get to work until 1st paycheck comes (honestly, I had never thought about this.  Two weeks of financial support to cover transportation seems like such a doable problem to solve. –ed.)
  • In an effort of good partnership, Goodwill would like to challenge another nonprofit in a softball match.  Create a team and challenge goodwill. (Catholic Community Services is on this in a big way –the trash talk has already begun… –ed.)
  • Al – Do you have a way to break out the demographics of the people who were hired.  Kelly – we can, with some follow-ups.  We don’t have staff to do those follow ups – we would have to distribute that follow up work out.  Gerrit – we can do the follow up for those who identified as homeless.
  • Did you ask about needing medical services?  Kelly – no but we can work on that (I think that is what was said – my notes on this made no sense. –ed)
  • Theresa – about barriers, did you ask if folks were formerly incarcerated – Kelly – did ask about “criminal background”.  Theresa – I can do follow up based on the criminal-record folks. 
  • Maureen – asked the County for 4 years of why people report being homeless – 2nd highest response was underemployed.  Would love to get data showing folks becoming fully employed and track them for a period.  If we can prove how employment impacts homelessness.  Kelly – we’d be interested in doing that.  The Goodwill Center for Strong families does track a lot clients for a long time.  Sound Outreach has a similar center for families that does that tracking. 
  • Alice – you keep hearing about follow up phone calls – was there a contact preference?  Kelly – we didn’t identify a follow up preference, but we do have phone and e-mail.
  • (Everyone clapped and cheered a lot – like so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opT_JGssUVk – or maybe not quite like that…–ed.)
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