Community Employers Meet at ANC

Local representatives from business, industry, and education gather at ANC's Governors Ballroom to hear details about the newly revived WORK Program.

WORK Program Coordinator Doug Echols explains the attendance policy of the Work Orientation and Retraining Keys Program to representatives of business, industry and education to emphasize that participants in the program will be expected to be dependable employees.

Community members from all sectors including business, industry, Workforce Services and education gathered for breakfast at the Governors Ballroom, on the campus of Arkansas Northeastern College, Friday, August 15, to learn about the newly revived WORK Program. Workforce Orientation & Retraining Keys (WORK) is a sixty clock hour program designed to lift under-skilled local residents living in poverty out of poverty and, simultaneously, advance economic development by expanding the local workforce.

 

“Through industry and community support, this program will reach out and find people who currently are not supporting themselves and give them the opportunity to learn the skills to be productive in the workforce. Not only is the WORK Program free to participants, it also incorporates an incentive pay to the students as long as they continue to meet the demands of the program, including showing up for each class on time,” said Dr. James Shemwell, President of Arkansas Northeastern College.

The eight-week program represents a comprehensive partnership effort among Arkansas Northeastern College, the Great River Economic Development Foundation, the Mississippi County Equal Opportunity Commission, area industries, community and faith-based leaders, and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, and is offered to participants at no cost.