Southwest Ohio Region Workforce Investment Board

Programs: Using federal grant funds from the workforce innovation and opportunity act of 2014 (which sunset the workforce investment act) sworwib provides oversight for ohiomeansjobs, the one-stop center of cincinnati/hamilton county, ohio. The one-stop center exists to help local job seekers obtain necessary skills to secure employment and assist local businesses in finding employees with the skill set they need. The area received a second year cut in funding of 15% and still served 1169 individuals at the omj center. This included 161 on-the-job training accounts and 351 in individual training accounts. This resulted in 327 individuals becoming employed after wioa services were provided and 166 employers receiving services more than once.

using federal grant funds from the workforce innovation and opportunity act of 2014, sworwib managed funds for youth ages 14-24 with comprehensive employment, education, and training services to improve their work readiness and college readiness capabilities. These services were delivered through three different youth contract agencies whose recently procured services have contracts that could term out june 30, 2018 or be renewed to june 30, 2019. During fy 2017, over 500 youths were served through these 3 providers and the whole area became part of the governor's new comprehensive case management employment program (ccmep).

in this fiscal year the sworwib administered special grants for several efforts as follows: (1) national emergency grant for sector partnership in administrative professions - we had another 80 more individuals in addition to the original 70 last year who were trained in administrative professional skills in it, healthcare, and office administration. In the second year we were rewarded with an additional $600,000 because we were more successful than the other spneg winners had been in year 1. (2) state of ohio southwest ohio workforce innovation and opportunity act regional strategic planning grant - the sworwib completed its $80,000 grant to lead the regional strategic planning and develop a regional plan for 2016-2020 for butler, clermont, hamilton and warren counties. The funds paid for consulting services and public forum event costs for working with all four counties to create the southwest ohio wioa plan. We posted the plan on line for public comment then forwarded it to the state of ohio who approved the plan in may 2017. (3) adult diploma program - last year the sworwib had participated with local able/ged and postsecondary providers in our market to test the market for interest in the adult diploma program and continued our advocacy for ohio to re-embed career exploration and training in the public high schools. Our efforts were rewarded when governor kasich obtained legislative support for dropping the high school graduation test and going with career and college readiness. Subsequently, governor kasich's initiatives are in state law and high schoolers and dropouts and adult learners can pursue alternative high school equivalencies based on career exploration and readiness. This started with the career technical high schools for the class of 2017 and will start with all public high schools for the class of 2018. The sworwib also tested a new career assessment with our enrolled in-school youth, known as the xyting assessment which helps young people understand their traits for career selections. We assessed 100 high schoolers in our in-school program and received very high ratings from the youth. Our president obtained a bank foundation grant for $3,500 to offer these assessments by the end of the school year 2017. (4) the sworwib president is always in search of additional funds for specific needs in our workforce challenges and partners with many agencies, schools and others to develop responsive collaborations that serve our employers and jobseekers.