Communities Investing in Families: Families Forward Program

Purpose: To demonstrate the value of an individualized program for meeting the needs of rural, low-income, incumbent workers

This project is a new undertaking from a community partnership first organized under the McKnight Welfare-to-Work initiative. It recruits participants from existing welfare-to-work job retention programs in the five counties that are part of Communities Investing in Families (CIF) (in east central Minnesota) and in five additional counties in central Minnesota through one of CIF’s key partners, Central Minnesota Jobs and Training Services. Participants are offered help to access education and training in selected employment sectors, with personal and job supports to ease the added complication. The sectors, selected for the likely availability of job openings at better-than-average wages for the region, are retail management, machine tool technology, health care, and computer technology. The program offers flexible funds to help pay for costs associated with training (tuition, supplies, transportation), as well as help from experienced job retention counselors to identify the most appropriate training for individual participants, and to help them maintain employment and family life while taking the training. The majority of participants are expected to be people who have recently left welfare. Program staff are hoping to also receive referrals from employers in the region, especially after changes in the welfare program cut funding for the job retention programs that were originally the main source of referrals.

	Partners: (As of April 2003)
		Educational: Pine Technical College Employment & Training Center
		Employers and business organization: East Central Minnesota Workforce Partnership
		Non-Profit Organizations: Communities Investing in Families
		Public philanthropic, and other organizations: Central Minnesota Jobs & Training Services and Job Service (parts of the local WorkForce Center)
	Participants: Motivated low-income working parents in 10 counties. Most left welfare within past year. Nearly all are White and speak English as their primary language
	Recruitment: Referral currently from MFIP employment and retention specialists; trying to also encourage referral through employers
	Training: Facilitate access to existing, structured, short-term training in four fields: retail management, machine tool technology, health care, computer technology, and other fields with high employment and career potential
	Support Services: Goal planning; help to sell the participant’s employer on the training plan; support, encourage, and help address barriers to managing the balance of job, training, and other responsibilities; Employee Assistance Plans (EAPs); connections with other community resources and public benefits
	Job placement, retention and advancement: Main emphasis: support for job retention with increased chances of advancement. However, services will extend beyond training into a second year of support and retention help