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Intensified Focus: Involving many agencies, center will provide greater employment help, job training through new programs
Journal Photo by Walt Unks
Forsyth Tech’s Shannon Taylor Stanley and Ron Berra talk in the REACT center’s employability lab about ways its classrooms can be used for training clients for jobs.
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Published: August 12, 2009
A group of local and state agencies flipped on the switch yesterday to a new center they believe will serve as a lighthouse for the unemployed and underemployed.
Regional Employment and Advancement Career Training center, or REACT, debuted in a 29,000-square-foot space above the Winston-Salem office of the N.C. Employment Security Commission at 450 W. Hanes Mill Road.
The goal is providing an expanded level of employment assistance and job training. That includes offering 12 new educational programs, featuring trades, construction and health care -- all designed to be completed in six months or less.
The center is funded for the first two years through at least $4 million from multiple federal-stimulus money sources.
"Times such as these are challenging, no doubt," said Paulette Stokes, the manager of the program.
"But they also are an opportunity. People who are unemployed or underemployed tend to be more motivated to gain the skill sets they need to be gainfully employed again."
The center will be open from 8 a.m. to as late as 9 p.m. on some weeknights to accommodate job-training classes being conducted by Forsyth Tech.
There's more elbow room in the center, with 30 computers available. Among the services provided are GED classes, career guidance, tips on the job market and unemployment insurance claims.
The number of residents turning to JobLink Career Center and other agencies continues to grow with the rising jobless rates, said Althea Hairston, the director of the Northwest Piedmont Workforce Development program.
The jobless rate in the Triad was 11.7 percent in June, and the Forsyth County rate was 10.1 percent.
"What's unique about REACT is the collaboration of numerous agencies all playing a vital role in promoting a stable local work force," Hairston said.
Other agencies involved include the N.C. Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, Forsyth Technical Community College, the local Job Corps office, Forsyth County Department of Social Services, local faith-based community groups, Experiment in Self-Reliance, the Urban League, Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Forsyth County and Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina.
Archie Hicks, the manager of the commission's local office, said that the new center has the potential to be "the premier JobLink site in the state."
"We were limited in our ability to provide services because we basically had run out of room," Hicks said.
"As we continue to go through this painful process of transitioning our economy from manufacturing to technology and services, there's going to continue to be demand on these services that we can better meet now."
Allen Joines, the mayor of Winston-Salem, said he is delighted with the new center because it "will help retool and re-energize our residents in a one-stop setting."
Latonya Davis said she came with her daughter, Miea, to the grand opening as another way of putting their faces in front of more employment officials.
Davis said she has been without a full-time job for more than three years. She is pursuing work with nonprofit groups, particularly those that focus on domestic violence against women.
"We're already doing what we believe is the right thing, getting additional education and training at Forsyth Tech," Latonya Davis said. "We just want someone to give us a chance to show what we can do, and hopefully our luck will change."
■ Richard Craver can be reached at 727-7376 or at rcraver@wsjournal.com.
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