As Connecticut employers struggle with an ongoing labor shortage, state officials highlighted Monday available supports for job seekers looking for help with issues like housing and child care as they endeavor to join the workforce.
Gov. Ned Lamont and workforce, housing and early childhood officials from his administration met at the Hartford Public Library to spotlight Career ConneCT — a $70 million workforce training initiative launched last year to help match jobseekers with programs to facilitate new careers.
Kelli-Marie Vallieres, chief state workforce officer, said the program sought to help remove barriers to training commonly encountered by job seekers including issues like child care, transportation, housing and access to technology.
“Any barrier that they have to entering into job training programs and then getting into an employment situation, we’re helping them, providing that hand up to them and curating that experience all the way through to give them the support,” Vallieres said.
One recipient of that support was Carlos Garcia, a Bridgeport resident, who took advantage of available help after returning home from a year-long prison sentence in April.
“We Rise,” a re-entry program run by the nonprofit Career Resources, Inc., helped Garcia earn job certifications and quickly find a position at Stop & Shop. Garcia said he continued to participate in available programs and earned a scholarship from the University of Bridgeport’s school of business, where expects to graduate next year.
“It is critical to highlight that there’s a lot of organizations that consist of compassionate individuals who offer non-judgemental support and are genuinely eager to help those on the verge of reentry,” Garcia said. “While numerous programs exist, it is up to us that’s transitioning to society to take advantage of it.”
The Career ConneCT initiative has helped to fund the work of several workforce development programs including that of Capital Workforce Partners, a group that runs seven “one-stop” career centers in north central Connecticut and expects to help more than 600 people under the Career ConneCT program.
Sandy Mackie, chief program officer for Capital Workforce Partners, said the group’s programs come with both access to career advisors and stipends to help support their ongoing training.
“Our work is a lot about recognizing the inherent dignity of the people we serve and honoring it,” Mackie said.
The renewed focus on helping Connecticut residents join the workforce comes as the state has recovered from the deep job losses of the early pandemic and as employers struggle to fill more than 90,000 positions around the state.
Lamont said employers and state officials were “desperate” to help more residents enter the workforce to address those shortages.
“Pass the word about Career ConneCT because we need more people in the workforce. We’ll provide the training you need,” the governor said. “We’ve got 90,000 jobs unfilled right now. We have more jobs than people looking for jobs. Career ConneCT makes sure nobody is left behind.”
Career ConneCT funding has also helped to support the work of Havenly, Inc., a New Haven-based cafe and community center that strives to employ and support refugee women who have moved to Connecticut. Co-executive director Camila Guiza-Chavez said the grant has helped the group serve around 45 women a year.
“They come to us with a broad range of experiences, many have professional degrees from their home countries and years of work experience in certain fields and industries,” Guiza-Chavez said. “These skills go largely unrecognized by employers here because they were developed in a home instead of in a U.S. workplace.”
Those helped by Havenly included Ibtissam Miloua, who immigrated to the United States from Morocco in 2018. Through a translator, Miloua said finding child care for her daughter had complicated her efforts to find work here. Havenly helped her by providing work and child care assistance, she said.
“It was an opportunity for me, where I can be working but also be able to have my daughter in a safe place,” she said.
