Posts by Marcie Dingle

KRA/CTWorks Hosts Legislative Open Houses

April 15, 2013 | No Comments

In recent months, KRA partnered with the Connecticut Department of Labor (CTDOL) and Capital Workforce Partners (CWP), KRA’s client, to host two Legislative Open Houses in the North Central Region. The first, CTWorks@Hartford Open House, focused on the many benefits the CTWorks system provides for Hartford residents. Distinguished guests…Tom Philips, CWP President & CEO; Pedro Segarra, Hartford Mayor; Sharon Palmer, CTDOL Commissioner; Sylvania Lopez, HR Director, Hispanic Health Council; John Prescod, Executive Director, ConnectiKids; and “Yolanda”*, a KRA/CTWorks jobseeker-customer…started the day with a tour of the Hartford facility: the Career Agent area; Computer Resource Library; On-Line Learning Center, where customers with limited computer savvy
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MBACC Thanks KRA/Waccamaw Region for Support

April 15, 2013 | No Comments

Last week, it was reported that KRA, which operates multi-site One-Stop Centers for Adult, Dislocated, and Youth Workers in the Waccamaw Region of South Carolina, was a major sponsor-supporter of the Youth Leadership Academy (YLA) founded and sponsored by the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce (MBACC). Rusty Gaskins, KRA Business Services Representative, and key member of the YLA Procurement Committee, as well as several other KRA staff, volunteered in many ways to make the 6th annual YLA a success. After the conference, Gaskins received a thank-you note from Diana D. Greene, the Executive Vice President of the MBACC, the text of
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KRA/Waccamaw Sponsors Youth Leadership Academy

April 8, 2013 | No Comments

On January 8, 2013, Rusty Gaskins, KRA Business Services Representative, sent a message to Knowlton R. Atterbeary, KRA President & CEO, which read, in part: “Mr. Atterbeary, I am serving on the Procurement Committee for Youth Leadership Academy (YLA), an event that recognizes more than 425 high school sophomores for their dedication to leadership within their schools and communities. On March 11, 2013, on the campus of Coastal Carolina University [CCU], YLA will convene its 6th annual event, with a theme of Expand Your W.O.R.L.D – Wrestling Over Responsible Leadership Decisions. The students, representing 45 schools in 9 counties, including
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Chamber of Commerce Honors KRA

April 1, 2013 | No Comments

The Baltimore City Chamber of Commerce is currently featuring KRA on the Homepage of its website in its Member Spotlight. As the operator of the Work Participation, Placement, and Support Services Program, funded by the Baltimore City Department of Social Services, KRA works every day, with businesses and other community partners, to offer Baltimore City jobseeker-customers, who receive TCA (Temporary Cash Assistance) benefits, a wide range of workforce development services. As an integral part of the Baltimore City community, KRA provides intensive job-readiness/placement services including assessment, Community Work Experience, training, and job development. The Program also provides occupation-specific skills training, to benefit
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KRA Monthly Spotlight!

March 29, 2013 | No Comments

This month, the Spotlight! is shining on the three SCWorks Career Centers in the Waccamaw Region of South Carolina, which are funded by the Waccamaw Regional Council of Governments, and operated and managed by KRA. This WIA (Workforce Investment Act) program for Adult/Dislocated Workers and In-School/Out-of-School Youth (ISY/OSY)* encompasses a tri-county area and provides comprehensive workforce services for Regional jobseeker-and employer-customers. For jobseekers, services include interest, aptitude, and personality assessment; development of Individual Employment Plans; skills upgrading through occupational training and OJTs; career coaching, counseling, and guidance; instructional job search technique workshops; job referral, placement and retention services; special supportive services, as
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KRA/Waccamaw and Partners Host Successful Job Fair

March 25, 2013 | No Comments

Last year, KRA/SCWorks*, Goodwill Industries of Lower South Carolina, and the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce hosted a Job Fair to benefit un- and under-employed community residents in the Waccamaw Region of South Carolina. According to Rusty Gaskins, KRA Business Services Representative (BSR), who served on the Planning Committee, “Our 2012 Job Fair partnership effort was so successful that we decided to co-host another, which we did on February 28th at the Myrtle Beach Mall. The Job Fair took about 9 months to plan, and for KRA was truly a team effort. In addition to soliciting employers and jobseekers
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KRA/SCWorks Youth Attend Symposium

March 25, 2013 | No Comments

Nineteen young customers, from the KRA/SCWorks One-Stop Career Center in the Lower Savannah Region of South Carolina, accompanied Jahkesha Abraham, KRA Program Manager, and Evelyn Stanley, KRA Career Agent, to a Youth Symposium, hosted by staff of the Lower Savannah Workforce Development Board (LSWDB); the LSWDB Youth Council; and Voorhees College, Symposium site. On Friday and Saturday, March 15th and 16th, transported by bus service supplied by the Williams Chapel AME Church of Orangeburg, the group arrived in Denmark in time for the start of each day’s workshops, enjoyed lunch and comraderie, and returned to the KRA/SCWorks’ Orangeburg office a little after
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KRA/SCWorks Outreach to Non-Graduates

March 25, 2013 | No Comments

Jahkesha Abraham, KRA Program Manager, SCWorks One-Stop Career Center in the Lower Savannah Region of South Carolina, is always looking for ways to better serve the Region’s young people, especially those Out-of-School Youth (OSY) who did not complete high school, and need educational, training and/or job-placement assistance. Recently, she contacted the Guidance Counselors at Branchville Lockett, Calhoun County, Edisto, Lake Marion, and Orangeburg Wilkinson High Schools, as well as the Bethune-Bowman Middle High School, to provide them with information about the KRA/SCWorks OSY Program, including services available and the registration process. Quickly, word spread from one Counselor to another that the Program
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KRA Staff/Students Support Local Habitat for Humanity

March 18, 2013 | No Comments

The planning process for the Youth Employability & Success (YES) Community Service Program began last December. According to Jahkesha Abraham, KRA Program Manager, SCWorks’ in Lower Savannah, SC, “We wanted to enhance our youth program by adding a permanent component that would fulfill one of the YES Program Elements, which is to provide leadership development opportunities that include community service and peer-centered activities to encourage responsibility and other positive social behaviors.” Abraham continued, “Evelyn Stanley, one of our KRA Career Agents, contacted four community agencies… Cooperative Church Ministries of Orangeburg, the Habitat for Humanity Store, the Orangeburg Goodwill, and Edisto Habitat for
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The KRA Career Agent-Customer Connection

March 11, 2013 | No Comments

For the past few months, KRA Corporation’s other News venue, the Monthly Spotlight!, featured a series of articles on the Power of Partnership. Several KRA/partner relationships were highlighted…those with businesses, civic organizations, colleges/universities, community agencies, etc. However the one partnership not addressed…is the one between a KRA Career Agent and a KRA jobseeker-customer. This special relationship, forged sometimes with more than one Career Agent, can last 5 weeks, 5 months, or even 5 years…however long it takes for a customer to get onto the right career path. Gloria Gil McKeown, 46 and married with one step-son, immigrated to the USA from
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