Workforce Development
& Education

Improving Employment Opportunities for Older Adults 
ARRA funding allowed for additional individuals to enroll in the Senior Training and Employment Program (STEP) program. STEP provides work experience and training opportunities to Allegheny County residents age 55 years and older who meet income guidelines. Individuals enrolled in the program receive 20 hours of training/work experience in nonprofit or government agencies and are paid minimum wage. In addition to work experience and training, enrollees receive assistance in securing full-time and part-time employment in the private sector.
 

Promoting Self-Sufficiency
ARRA will fund programs that give people the tools to better manage their finances and thereby improve their incomes and their futures. Working-aged members of households, with a combined annual income level up to 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, who are struggling to overcome the financial effects of the national recession on their lives are the target population for several CSBG-funded programs. DHS has contracted with 16 local agencies to provide a wide variety of services designed to lead this new group of people to long-term self-sufficiency.
 

Rapid Response Funds to Serve Surplus of Dislocated Workers
Additional ARRA Workforce Investment Act Funding to assist dislocated workers in receiving job-skills training.
 

Improving Employment Opportunities for Youth 
ARRA funding will pay the summer 2010 wages of 1,000 disadvantaged County residents between the ages of 14 and 24 years of age. Hiring preferences are given to current and past foster care youth, especially those from low-income communities. The programs ranged from four to 10 weeks in length. Many of the summer programs bolster the efforts of local non-profit agencies, supported County green initiatives and provide on-the-job training. Six hundred youth were hired for summer employment in 2009. The grants are through the Workforce Investment Act (WIA).
(News releases: 2010, 2009)
 

Head Start
Through ARRA funding, financial incentives to encourage staff retention will be paid to all (current as of September 2009) Head Start classroom staff.
ARRA funding received by the DHS Office of Community Services (OCS) also allowed for the training of 229 Head Start Family Support and Education staff in Family Development Credentialing (FDC) as well as other quality improvement efforts related to Head Start. FDC was developed by Cornell University to help professionals better understand and relate to the families that they serve, thereby allowing true partnerships to be formed.
 

AmeriCorps 
ARRA funded an additional 28 AmeriCorps members for a total of 14.62 full-time equivalents to engage more than 400 community youth over a 12-month period. AmeriCorps members engage youth in economically and educationally distressed communities by providing structured activities in safe places at summer and school-year camps, offering leadership in improving their surroundings through “green” legacy projects, and helping to improve academic performance through group and individual tutoring.