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Veteran's Employment Committee
April 7, 2021: 10:00 AMMeeting ID: 831 9630 5767 Passcode: d=0gg&GL
SWB Meeting VEC Meeting - 4.7.2021 Attendees: Andy Gibson, Kylie Higgins, Joe Tatem, Amy Line, David Klein, Arron Dombrowski, Adria Horn, Bill Benson, Clifford Gray, David Richmond, Debbie Kelley, Jen Fulmer, Leo Deon, Marc Cafiso, Matthew Shannon, Robin Doody, Beth Mazzaro, Mark Cater, Joshua Howe Joe Tatem, Chair: Proposing moving meetings to another day of the week; change to Thursdays and send out those invites Defer approval of meeting notes from January's meeting. Josh / Joe to develop written notes from video for approval at next meeting Technology end of things for veterans; is this part of your training programs? o Learning technology as we go in order to accomplish what we need to do using technology; using Zoom to run hire events o Barrier to employment? Having to do a Zoom interview, needing to have specific words in resumes for a job-bot to pick it up, etc. o Case managers discussing doing interview processes using Zoom, etc. o UI expansion being seen across country, some employers say it impacts middle to lower income earners more, may not be doing work searches which means they are not practicing those skills to search for a job; need to be sure were having those conversations with the veterans about maintaining those skills o From Jennifer Giroux: The American Red Cross has Kindle Fires and Amazon Alexa's available, for free, to people throughout our state to increase access to healthcare, medical, mental health needs. They are for Veterans and non-Veterans. If you have a client who lacks a screen or device to be able to interact with providers virtually, this might be an option for your agency. My contact is Tim Bothe. tim.bothe2@redcross.org He is very helpful and has great classes to offer clients as well. He is doing an emergency preparedness class today at 3pm (virtual). He has other supplies and also helping provide Home Kits for Veterans moving into permanent housing from homelessness. o 72% of Career Center outreach for veterans is electronic Veterans unemployment number; steady for last 3 months, as high as 6.3% then dropped to 5.6% and thats where it is roughly in Maine o Lack of transportation is barrier for employment for veterans, pandemic had huge impact on this o 184 homeless veterans in state right now; housed in hotels, their motivation to seek employment is not great based on resources they receive currently criminal backgrounds also impact the veterans to be given an interview, etc. o Legal background question - federal bonding programs still available; David Klein can provide this information SHRM should have this information in order to provide to employers this information about federal bonding programs; David Klein and Andy Gibson to take lead, also to be included is Bethanie Mazzaro: Bethanie Mazzaro cell 207-624-2035/office 207-430-5662 and Bethanie.e.mazzaro.ctr@mail.mil Kylie Higgins, Homeless Veteran Community Coordinator, VA Maine Healthcare System: Presented PowerPoint presentation o Age range from 55-70 year olds looking for employment; mostly single or divorced folks looking for employment o Will/can share personal assessment for the veterans that is used to determine best placement; will send to Joe o Discussed going over budgeting with veterans, are any struggling with debt/student loans/ credit cards? Roughly 98% of veterans have some sort of debt that they are struggling with while looking for employment o HVRP grantee is responsible for being sure the veterans are enrolled in some sort of career tool, employment connections, etc. o Veterans at work certificate from SHRM; free link from SHRM on their website Leo Deon: 145 veterans hired during the Hire-a-Vet campaign; 26 females out of the 145; the average wage $23/hr; 14 out of 16 counties participated in campaign - all sponsor "thank you" icons are completed, letter of appreciation to chain of command for Commissioner Fortman and Governor Mills to sign - Augusta civic center for the 26th of August reserved for live event hopefully, will still have digital event, 172 employers attended weekly trainings o Total number of these employed how many were out of work or just changing jobs? Didnt capture that info, can check with IT folks to see how we can capture that info o Number of veterans who are coming back to state of Maine? Interest from out of state job seekers was there, we do not receive all demographics from employers Sarah Sherman/David Richmond: Marketing; finding ways to work together with Bill Benson, virtual job fairs and welcome letter created; meeting with Matt Lenoard with talent sourc, received email from Martha Bentley circling back around to a video for talent attraction grant to focus on rural areas $4,750 grant amount https://www.maine.gov/decd/strategic-plan/projects-underway/talent-grants o Barriers, outreach and how to deliver our message; work with DECD on how to provide this Data DECD is looking for Why is someone coming to Maine? Quality of life? o Talent attraction piece; some other states have advantage with active duty presence are taking a much more aggressive stance on local efforts; Maine lacks active duty presence Some states have better tax breaks than Maine, one aggressive tools for a state is to use tax benefit SC liaison working with base and city doing same type of brainstorming we do here, trying to facilitate relationship between employer and base Getting videos into TAP classes on bases for Maine; why Maine? TAP classes may not be the answer has TAP class videos are high demand for organizations National Guard and Reserve liaisons? Reach out to them and present the idea of showing videos How can we attract people from other states to Maine? Want to step back a little ways and steer back to what we can do to showcase Maine
Review workforce committees and see how we can work together with those groups Next meeting on 5/20/2021, virtually, and meeting invite will soon follow
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Meeting of the State Workforce Board. The State Workforce Board is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation to its services, programs and employment. Please contact us should you required accommodation or alternative format materials. (207) 621-5087 or TTY Users Call Maine Relay 711 SWB.DOL@maine.gov
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