Making Sense of Skills Based Hiring

Grace Heffernan Everywhere I turn it seems like people are talking about the changing nature of work.  In fact, just last month as a part of In Demand Jobs Week, OMJ ClevelandICuyahoga County hosted Social Policy Research Associates (SPR) to discuss the very topic.  And while the discussion was varied, covering everything from robots and…

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Connecting to a Career. Extraordinary.

This February, The Fund for Our Economic Future, a Northeast Ohio regional alliance of funders, published Two Tomorrows and asked us all to make a choice for our future. Do we want it to be just average … or extraordinary? Choosing extraordinary means committing to a vision and an agenda to “build a continuously regenerating economy…

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National Skills Coalition Reflection

Last month, Towards Employment was represented at the National Skills Coalition (NSC) annual Skills Summit, a conference that engages stakeholders from across the country in a national agenda to help build up our country’s workforce and the policy changes to make that possible. The National Skills Coalition brings together a broad-based coalition that believes in…

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Making a Clear Pathway

Towards Employment staff participated in Making a Clear Pathway: Transitioning for Successful Reentry organized by the Literacy Cooperative in conjunction with Cuyahoga Community College, Seeds of Literacy, Cuyahoga County Public Library and Towards Employment. The event helped adult literacy providers develop a stronger understanding of the reentry ecosystem to better support students who have criminal…

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Ellen's Story

In August 2015, Ellen stepped up and onto a career pathway.  She was a returning citizen who went through Towards Employment job readiness program. She decided she wanted a career in construction and after a work experience with Habitat for Humanity, she achieved a Level 1 carpenter’s apprentice certification with just two levels left to…

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Sisters Find Careers at University Hospitals

As a new mother, Ebonee was craving stability. With a child to support, she realized she lacked a clear direction and had no idea how to find a steady job to support herself and her child. A cousin told her about Towards Employment, and she attended an information session. Right away, she knew this was…

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RiSE at the Euclid Jail

Through funding from the US Department of Labor to Ohio Means Jobs Cleveland/Cuyahoga, Towards Employment (TE) provides services under Reentry Integration Services for Employment, or RiSE. RiSE is a voluntary program, housed at the Euclid Jail, that provides comprehensive job readiness services for male adults serving court sentences from Cuyahoga County. Participants receive services both…

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Meet our interns: Bri

Bri Snoddy School: Miami University Field of Study: Psychology major, criminology minor Year of study: Rising senior Hometown: Cleveland Why were you interested in interning at TE? I was interested in working at TE because of the emphasis on the reentry population. I believe that this population can often be left with a huge stigma,…

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