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JOTF E-Newsletter The Job Opportunities Task Force (JOTF) is pleased to bring you the latest edition of its electronic newsletter. The JOTF E-Newsletter includes news, announcements, and information about upcoming events in the Baltimore area that we hope will be of interest to you. If your organization would like to publicize an event, job announcement, or other information, please send e-mail to info@jotf.org. In this issue:
OTHER NEWS:
UPCOMING EVENTS:
NEW PUBLICATIONS AND RESOURCES:
JOTF NEWS
You are invited to join JOTF for the release of our new report that analyzes how well state policies and programs assist low-income, working families become financially secure. Findings and recommendations from Connecting Low-Income Families to Good Jobs: A Policy Roadmap for Maryland will be presented at the University of Baltimore at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, January 26. Congressman Benjamin L. Cardin will be the keynote speaker for this event. A panel of policy experts will respond to the report. Panelists include: Fred Mason, President, Maryland and Washington, D.C. AFL-CIO; Dr. Irving McPhail, Chancellor, Community Colleges of Baltimore County; Neil Meltzer, President and CEO, Sinai Hospital; and Katharine Oliver, Assistant State Superintendent, Maryland State Department of Education. Dunbar Brooks, Manager of Data Development with the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, will moderate. Connecting Low-Income Families to Good Jobs provides an overview of how low-income workers are faring in Maryland; discusses the importance of education and training; assesses state efforts to help create good jobs; focuses on state policies that foster financial security for this population; and offers policy recommendations. The report was made possible by grants from Open Society Institute-Baltimore and the France-Merrick Foundation, with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The event is free and open to the public, and will take place in the Thumel Business Center Auditorium, University of Baltimore Merrick School of Business, 1420 North Charles Street. Space is limited. RSVP to Jessica Traskey at (410) 234-8040.
The JOTF 2004 Public Policy Agenda puts forward suggestions to improve education and training among low-skill workers and job seekers, enhance job opportunities, increase access to work supports, and assist ex-prisoners in finding employment. Aimed at reforming state policies toward low-income workers, our Public Policy Agenda provides a map of JOTF legislative, budgetary, and regulatory advocacy in the 2004 General Assembly session. Read the JOTF
2004 Public Policy Agenda.
In response to input from Baltimore Employment Roundtable members, the Roundtable's first meeting of the new year will focus on childcare resources for working parents. Staff of the Baltimore Childcare Resource Center have been invited to discuss local childcare resources available to working parents; tips to help job seekers juggle the twin demands of work and childcare; and the policy outlook for public support of childcare. The Baltimore Employment Roundtable's first meeting of the new year will take place at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, January 22, in the Goldseker Conference Room, 2 East Read Street, 8th Floor, Baltimore. All are welcome to attend. The Baltimore Employment Roundtable is an informal network of regional workforce development providers who meet monthly to share information and engage in professional development activities. JOTF convenes meetings of the Roundtable and provides staff support. For more information, contact Kevin Griffin Moreno at (410) 234-8046.
Low-income workers who wish to move up and out of poverty need more than just a job; they also need to know how to make their earnings work for them and their families, said a panel of economic education experts at a JOTF/Open Society Institute-Baltimore forum on December 11, 2003. Over 60 people attended the free, public forum, which was hosted by the University of Baltimore’s Jacob France Institute. Panelists included Carol Jarvis and Mary Ann Hewitt of the Maryland Council on Economic Education, Althea Saunders-Ranniar and Kevin Jordan of the Bon Secours of Maryland Foundation, and Brian Lyght of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Read the complete summary of the forum and link to panelists’ presentations. OTHER NEWS
The Department of Human Resources (DHR) has announced that a freeze will be placed on cash assistance payments for new applicants to the Transitional Emergency and Medical Housing Assistance (TEMHA) program, which serves single, disabled adults who have no minor children and no income. The freeze will take effect 1/12/04. Current eligible disabled adults receive $185 per month to help pay for housing and other basic human needs. Most of the individuals on TEMHA have worked in the past but are now unable to work because of medically documented health issues. These individuals typically have multiple health problems, including heart disease, back problems, diabetes, substance abuse, amputations, and mental health issues. DHR estimates that 10,000 disabled individuals who have no income will be denied cash assistance. These cuts are likely to result in more people who are homeless and who seek treatment in emergency rooms. These outcomes cost far more than aiding individuals with minimal cash assistance. For more information on the TEMHA cuts, please contact Jane O'Leary, Maryland Alliance for the Poor, (410) 261-6783. Read the Baltimore Sun article Program
cuts affect those with 'nothing'.
Alison Assanah-Carroll has been selected to direct Project Bridge, the collaborative responsible for administering a transitional jobs program for ex-prisoners who return to Baltimore. Prior to joining Project Bridge, Ms. Assanah-Carrol was program manager of the Youth Empowerment Program at Baltimore City Community College. A social worker with degrees from the University of Maryland and Morgan State University, Ms. Assanah-Carroll's areas of expertise include: grant writing and administration; case management and project management; budget development and management; and staff training and supervision. For more information about Project Bridge and the Baltimore
Transitional Jobs Project, click
here.
The Baltimore Sun reports that Frank Stronach, owner of Pimlico Race Course, plans to establish a $7 million job training center in the Park Heights area. The Magna Baltimore Technical Training Center will offer tool-and-die skills and a building maintenance program to neighborhood residents. Read the Baltimore Sun article Track owner offers trade for neighbors.
Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity has committed to investing $1 million in Baltimore's Pen Lucy neighborhood. A local affilate of the national nonprofit organization that builds and rehabilitates houses for low-income buyers, Chesapeake Habitate for Humanity announced plans to renovate 20 empty rowhouses along Cator Avenue. Mike Mitchell, executive director of Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity, is a member of JOTF's board of directors. Read Baltimore Sun article Building the whole place up.
According to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survery released December 16, only 19 percent of Baltimore-area employers are planning to hire additional employees in the first three months of 2004. The results "mark a significant decline from the 34 percent projecting growth for the forth quarter of this year."
The Center
for Law and Social Policy has released a policy brief on the substantive
reductions in federal childcare funding to states. In the brief, CLASP
expresses concern over statements by the Bush administration regarding
the amount of these funds. Read the Administration Is Misstating Amount of Child Care Funding in Pending TANF Reauthorization Bills.
The University of Baltimore's Jacob France Institute will host an interactive session on lessons learned from Florida's K-20 Task Force with Jay Pfeffier, director of the Office of Educational Information and Accountability, Florida Department of Education. The session will take place on January 28, 2004, from 1:00 p.m. until 3:30 p.m., at the University of Baltimore's Thumel Business Center Auditorium, 1420 North Charles Street, Baltimore. RSVP to David Stevens, executive director of the Jacob France Institute. For more information about Florida's accountability, research, and measurement activities covering K-13, community colleges, universities, and private providers, go to the Florida State Board of Education's K-20 Education Performance Accountability project and the Florida Department of Education.
The Maryland
Regional Practitioners Network for Fathers and Families will sponsor
Father's Day in Annapolis on February 3, 2004. The event will
provide MRPNFF members, fathers, and interested organizations and individuals
with an opportunity to learn more about the legislative process and discuss
lawmakers' roles in strengthening fathers and families.
OPPORTUNITIES If your organization would like to publicize a service, job announcement, grant, or other opportunity, send e-mail to info@jotf.org.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Homeless Veterans Reintegration Project has announced the availabiilty of grant funds for transitional programs that provide life skills, employment, and support services to incarcerated veterans. Grants will be made for up to $250,000 each for four special demonstration projects designed to support incarcerated veterans at risk of homelessness. Responses to the grant solicitation are due on January 21, 2004. Read the Federal
Register announcement.
NEW PUBLICATIONS AND RESOURCES
The Jacob France Institute has released a report that outlines some of the labor market concepts needed to design effective vocational-technical education programs. Read Employment Projections For Planning Vocational-Technical Education Curricula: Mission Impossible?
A new publication by Jobs
for the Future addresses some of the challenges involved in training
workers at various skill and wage levels. E-Newsletter Co-Editors:
Kevin Griffin Moreno
and Doha Melhem |
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