BOS / RA-L2009-549778

 

 

WORKFORCE SYSTEMS LETTER NO.:  09-02

 

DATE: March 19, 2009

 

EFFECT:        ACTION                                                         INFO               ATTACHMENTS

[X]       SWAs                                                  [X]                               [X]

                        [X]       UI Directors                                       [X]                               [X]      

                        [X]       LMI Directors                                                [X]                               [X]

                        [X]       Community-Based and                     [X]                               [X]

                                    High-Growth Grantees

                       

SUBJECT:     HOLD THE DATE: Regional Recovery and Reemployment Forum,  

April 28 - 30, 2009

 

 

1.      Purpose and Background: To announce the Region I forum on recovery and reemployment.  This regional learning and action-planning forum is a follow-up to the national Reemployment Works! Conference held January 28 - 30, 2009 in Baltimore, Maryland.  It is designed to build on the lessons learned and challenges identified at the Baltimore conference, expand discussion on the American Recovery and Reemployment Act (ARRA), and facilitate action plan development and implementation.

 

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act makes provisions for significant investments to rebuild the country?s infrastructure, for addressing energy and environmental concerns through green jobs initiatives, and assisting unemployed individuals striving to reenter the workforce.  This forum will provide an opportunity for attendees to address the challenges affecting their agency's ability to develop short-term and long-range plans to improve their agency's reemployment response and improve current and future career prospects for the unemployed. 

 

2.      Design and Objectives:  The changing economy challenges the workforce system to look at innovative approaches in service delivery strategy that respond to the needs of Dislocated Workers (DW) and Unemployment Insurance (UI) claimants, and many current and promising approaches have been identified that could improve the reemployment function.  Forum participants will hear about those approaches and learn from some of the system?s most respected thought leaders, practitioners, and policy makers. 

 

Day One of the forum will begin at 1:00 p.m. on April 28 with plenary sessions on ARRA and ETA?s reemployment technical assistance efforts followed by state-focused action planning.  State teams will concentrate on short-term opportunities and engage in outcome-oriented strategic planning with the support of experts and colleagues. 

 

On Day Two individual attendees will participate in one of the five critical areas of reemployment function and service delivery shown below:

 

·         Actionable workforce information;

·         Rapid Response/early warning networks;

·         Skills assessments;

·         Skills transferability; and

·         Training strategies

 

After participating in one of the five focus areas, attendees will reconvene in state teams to target long-term opportunities and engage in outcome-oriented strategic planning, again with the support of experts and colleagues.  (The draft agenda is attached.)

 

All participants are encouraged to complete pre-forum work to help prioritize their challenges and prepare them to leverage the expertise available at the session.  The recommended pre-forum work is located on the Reemployment Works! Website (http://reemploymentworks.workforce3one.org/) and includes reviewing the following:

 

·         Baltimore Summit materials, particularly workshop materials and the reemployment wikis; and

·         The reemployment Webinar series

 

3.      Target Audience:  The forum and workshops are designed for state and local operational and policy experts who have a role in providing reemployment services to UI claimants and dislocated workers.  Ideally, representation from each state will include partners from all areas and levels of the workforce system to bring all perspectives to the issue:

 

·         UI directors and staff,

·         State Workforce Agency directors and staff,

·         state and local Workforce Investment Board directors and staff,

·         One-Stop Career Center managers and staff,

·         LMI Directors and staff,

·         representatives of Community-Based and High Growth Job Training grantees 

 

4.      Logistics:  The forum will take place April 28 - 30, 2009 in downtown Boston.  The session will begin at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28 and conclude at 12:00 noon on Thursday, April 30. 

 

Forum and hotel registration will be available via Web site within the week.  Please visit the Region 1 landing page- of the Reemployment Works! Web site for information and the registration link at:  http://reemploymentworks.workforce3one.org/page/region_1.  Hotel reservation capability will be available through this link by March 23.

 

5.      Inquiries:  If you have questions concerning registration, please contact Chris Dang at

(202) 693-3952 .  For questions concerning programmatic content, please contact Ms. Amanda Shaffer at (617) 788-0115.

 

 

 

Holly C. O'Brien

Acting Regional Administrator