EDC’s Workforce Development Summit back for second year

Image courtesy jscreationzs/FreeDigitalPhotos.net


 By Caitlyn Meyer

The second annual Workforce Development Summit will be May 4 at the White Rose Room of the York Fairgrounds. One new wrinkle this year: It’s happening at the same time as the York County Chamber Business & Technology Expo. The York County Economic Development Corp.’s Office of Workforce Development presents the summit to inform and engage employers in the county’s workforce development system, so it made sense to link it to the Chamber Expo. Also, such forums are one of the strategies identified in the county’s economic development plan.

The 2011 Keynote Speaker is Daniel Kuba, acting director of Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Bureau of Workforce Development Partnership. The Summit will highlight state programs available to employers for their existing workforce and resources to assist in the hiring process. These presentations will provide businesses with information on how to increase their bottom line through their employees, get the most efficiency from their training processes, and improve the effectiveness of their training dollars.

There is no charge to attend the Summit, however registration is required. Participants should register at www.ycedc.org. Workforce Summit attendees are invited to visit the Chamber Expo free of charge.

YCEDC’s OWD arose from a YorkCounts call to develop a unified, countywide system of workforce development. The office was launched in 2008 with the mission to engage employers, educators and community partners to create a lifelong learning environment that will attract and retain strong businesses and a diverse and talented workforce critical for sustaining a vibrant community and a growing, innovative economy. The OWD affiliated with the York County Alliance for Learning (YCAL) in 2010 and implements YCAL youth programs with business community partners. Since 2008, OWD has become the facilitator for workforce development in York County by encouraging collaboration between businesses and training providers to better prepare our future workforce.

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IF YOU GO

What: Workforce Development Summit
When: Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Where: The White Rose Room of the York Fairgrounds, 334 Carlisle Avenue, York
To register: Go to www.ycedc.org.
For details: Contact Katie Knepp, Workforce Development Coordinator, at cknepp@ycedc.org or 717-846-8879.
The day’s sechedule:
7:30-8 a.m.Registration
8-10:15 a.m.Program
10:15-11 a.m. VIP Reception
11 a.m.-5 p.m. Chamber Expo

Caitlyn Meyer is the business development coordinator for the York County Economic Development Corp. She coordinates YCEDC activities related to the York County Economic Development Plan, seeks to work with local governments through the Municipal Outreach Program and works on business retention. Caitlyn earned her bachelor’s degree in history from York College of Pennsylvania in 2009 and has been with YCEDC since that time. Caitlyn lives and works in York. She can be reached at cmeyer@ycedc.org or 717-846-8879, ext. 3053.

Live blogging from Gifts That Give Hope

We're at Gifts That Give Hope York, and more than 20 York County nonprofits have their displays set up and are ready to tell folks what they do. It's an unusual fundraising opportunity, organized by the Women's Giving Circle. Stop in and see if there's a special holiday gift for a friend or relative that will also support a local community improvement. We're all on the second floor. YorkCounts is in a corner room with Kevin from YorkArts, Julie from York Little Theatre, Joan from the York Junior Symphony and Trisha from the YWCA. Stop in and say hello.

Update, noon: Folks are beginning to trickle in after church and lunch. I spoke with a man who said he was interested in buying a gift of tickets to a York Symphony concert because his family supported the symphony when he was growing up in Iowa. That's the kind of personal connection this gift fair can generate.

Update 2, 3 p.m.: Mary Lou Alsentzer, the woman who put this together, said both local newspapers and a TV station have been in to cover the fair. So look for stories about the fair tonight and tomorrow on TV, in print and online.

Update 3, 11 a.m. Nov. 10: The first report from Mary Lou indicates more than $8,000 was raised at the event Sunday, with gifts averaging around $200. Remember: You can help increase that total through the holidays by buying gifts online at www.giftsthatgivehope.org/york/.


- Dan Fink

Child abuse town hall set for June 10

After presenting three town halls to highlight the reserach and recommendations in the United Way's Stay in School Report, YorkCounts moves to a new subject for a community conversation.

Child abuse.

On the evening of June 10, we'll bring together a wide swath of local professionals, advocates and government officials to start the work of developing a coordinated plan for reducing child abuse in York County. We're doing this now because of two things that happened around the same time in April.

First, the York Daily Record/Sunday News produced a documentary to mark the first anniversary of the death of Darisabel Baez, a 2-year-old girl who was killed in a horrific case of child abuse. That documentary, "Carrying Darisabel," by YDR photographer Jason Plotkin, presents the stories of the first responders who were involved in Darisabel's case - the police officers, EMTs and hospital workers. It's a powerful film.

Shortly after that, the state released its latest child abuse numbers. And once again, the number of cases in York County is tragically high. The number of confirmed cases has remained around 150 for the past four years, and the rate of cases per 100,000 has has hovered close to 35 for the past four years. That happened while the state numbers have come down.

The combination prompted us to move. Our approach is to use the data to spotlight an issue of community concern, bring people together to talk about the issue, then find a community partner willing to take the lead on working toward solutions. We hope to begin that process with this town hall meeting.

What programs do we have in York County right now that work? Which ones would be more efffective with more resources? Can we give more help to new parents? How do we catch the signs of abuse earlier? How do we let friends and neighbors know it's OK for them to report something that looks suspicious?

These are some of the questions we want people to talk about. And we hope that people can bring the highest levels of honesty and respect to the conversation. We don't want finger pointing or blaming.

This is truly about finding ways to protect those among us who are least able to protect themselves. So mark you calendar: 6 p.m. June 10, at the York Jewish Community Center. We hope you'll be there and be part of the conversation.

- Dan Fink

The charter school debate

We here at YorkCounts think educational achievement and opportunity in York County should be a concern for every citizen  regardless of what school district they live in, and we've placed a pretty big bet that the York Academy Regional Charter School will be a step in the right direction.

We have to acknowledge, though, that the question of whether charter schools are some kind of magic cure for urban education is far from settled. Three recent news articles show how complicated the issues are.

The New York Times ran a 3,600-word story May 1 that examines the mixed performance of charter schools nationwide. Yes, there are some success stories, where charter schools have helped students in urban districts outperform their public school peers. We believe the YorkCounts professionals who are involved in the York Academy will make it one of the success stories. But, one recent comphrehensive study puts the number of successful schools at about a third of the nation's 5,000 charter schools. But about half do no better and about a third do significantly worse. From the story:

"... the challenge of reproducing high-flying schools is giving even some advocates pause. Academically ambitious leaders of the school choice movement have come to a hard recognition: raising student achievement for poor urban children - what the most fervent call a new civil rights campaign - is enormously difficult and often expensive."

And we also have to acknowledge that charter schools aren't the only potential answer. In Florida, a program to promote school choice for poor families has the potential, according to education policy analyst Adam Schaeffer of the libertarian Cato Institute, to "revolutionize K-12 education in the Sunshine State." Schaeffer made the argument in an op-ed that appeared in the Wall Street Journal April 30.

Here's how the program works: Businesses can to donate to a nonprofit scholarship organization that helps poor families pay private school tuition. Businesses can claim dollar-for-dollar tax credits. A change to the enabling law would expand the program so that more money could be donated and businesses could claim a broader array of tax credits, with the goal of making more scholarships available. Evidence to assess the program's impact is still being developed; the program was created in 2001. But Schaeffer is optimistic.

"Florida's scholarship program appears to be the first statewide private school choice program to reach a critical mass of funding, functionality and political support. As an ever increasing number of students in Florida take advantage of the scholarship program, other states will find it hard to resist enacting broad-based school choice."

Finally, from the Philadelphia Inquirer last month comes a story about the revival in a West Phildelphia neighborhood near the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. The Penn Alexander School, a charter school, opened in 2001 in University City. The school was in a blighted section of the city that was full of crime and rowdy and transient college students and mostly devoid of middle-class families. Penn initiated an overhaul of the neighborhood, and the charter school was part of the plan.

And now?

The school is attracting a diverse student body. Professionals are moving in. And when they have kids, they stay - for the school. Businesses are popping up (including a gourmet grocery store). Streets are cleaner and safer.

"'The (area around the school) has turned ... into a stable family neighborhood, with kids on almost every street,' said Andrew Meloney, the West Philadelphia planner for the City Planning Commission."

So yes, we bet on the York Academy, and we're confident that the folks running the school will do it right. It won't solve every problem. But wouldn't it be cool to see the Northwest Triangle turn around like the neighborhood in West Philly?

- Dan Fink

Fair housing on the big screen

Movies have a way of starting conversations. Here's one we think is worth seeing and talking about. It's called "The House We Live In," and takes a look at the ways, as a PBS Web site on the documentary puts it, "our institutions and policies advantage some groups at the expense of others."

"The House We Live In" was originally part of a three-part series called "Race: The Power of an  Illusion," which first aired on PBS stations in 2003. The film follows the history of the way different generations of immigrants were accepted into the melting pot that is America. In particular, it looks at the way housing policy after World War II created segregated communities. Again, from the PBS site:

"Real estate practices and federal government regulations directed government-guaranteed loans to white homeowners and kept non-whites out, allowing those once previously considered "not quite white" to blend together and reap the advantages of whiteness, including the accumulation of equity and wealth as their homes increased in value. Those on the other side of the color line were denied the same opportunities for asset accumulation and upward mobility."

And what has been the long-term consequence of that, some 60 years later?

"Today, the net worth of the average Black family is about 1/8 that of the average white family. Much of that difference derives from the value of the family's residence. Houses in predominantly white areas sell for much more than those in Black, Hispanic or integrated neighborhoods, and so power, wealth, and advantage - or the lack of it - are passed down from parent to child. Wealth isn't just luxury or profit; it's the starting point for the next generation."

What should we do about that in York County? The York City Human Relations Commission will present a screening of the movie at 6 p.m. April 28 at the Strand Theatre to explore that question. Come see the movie, and join the panel discussion that will follow; YorkCounts Director James DeBord is among the participants. YorkCounts has stated its support for a community goal of increasing affordable housing options across the county and ending the practice of concentrating the poor disproportionately in York City.

- Dan Fink

Summarizing the summit

Eric Menzer had it right.

Sure, it was exciting to see all the successes YorkCounts volunteers had achieved in the past year - the work on Stay in School Report by the United Way, the effort on the regional charter school led by Dennis Baughman and Sue Krebs, the municipal officials who laid the groundwork for a groundbreaking examination of regional policing in York County.

And Lynn Cummings, a community organizer who helped found Neighbors Empowering Pennsauken, offered an inspiring message about the potential of every individual to make a difference.

But it was the outgoing YorkCounts board chairman and former co-chairman of the Metro-York effort who concisely made the case for our mission in the community:

“We were created to shine a light on numbers that sometimes we would rather not see. We were created to ask questions that make us a little uncomfortable. We were created to work on problems that one organization can’t solve alone."

In other words, we confront issues that nobody else wants. It's hard work. It can take years to see incremental improvements. Folks don't always agree with us. But we do it truly to improve the quality of life in York County.

Update, 3/29: I had a few requests from people who wanted to see a copy of Eric's entire speech. You can find it here.

Update 2, 3/29: I put some photos from the summit up on Facebook. Click here to go to the YorkCounts Facebook page, and then check out the Summit 2010 photo album. Penn State York filmed the summit, and White Rose Community Television will rebroadcast it starting within the next week. I will let you know when I have air times.

- Dan Fink

Regional smart growth group hosts forum

YorkCounts is a big believer in regionalism and in better land-use planning. So we're excited about this coalition that was formed recently by representatives from York and Adams counties. And this group, the York-Adams Regional Smart Growth Coalition, is not made up of the usual collection of planners and township managers. This is home builders and real estate agents, businesspeople who have skin in the game for wanting to see growth managed more effectively.

The YorkCounts board recently endorsed the coalition's mission, which includes the following:

• Encouraging environmentally sound development practices
• Sustaining healthy farms and abundant farmland
• Revitalizing our older urban areas
• Fostering economic growth that brings high-quality jobs to our citizens
• Assuring reasonable housing costs that keep home ownership within reach of most households and providing an array of homeownership opportunities in our communities
• Matching infrastructure development with growth strategies
• And encouraging growth in areas where infrastructure currently exists

Darrell Auterson, president of the York County Economic Development Corp., serves as the coalition's chairman. If you're interested in smart growth, the group's next meeting is 9 a.m. Dec. 16 - that's tomorrow - at the offices of the Realtors Association of York and Adams Counties, 901 Smile Way, York. Brian Hare, chief of PennDOT's Design Services division, will discuss Pennsylvania’s Smart Transportation movement, and Brandy Heilman, executive director of Commuter Services of Pennsylvania, will talk about alternatives for commuters. For details or to register, contact Shanna Wiest at 717-880-1230 or shanna@rayac.com.

- Dan Fink

Judge Uhler talks truancy on WITF

York County Judge John Uhler talks about truancy and the toll it takes on our community on WITF-FM's "Radio Smart Talk" this morning. His truancy work will be part of an upcoming series of town halls planned by YorkCounts. The first town hall is 6:30 p.m. Nov. 9 in Dover. Here's the program summary from witf.org:

"More than one million students drop out of school each year in the U.S. Statistics indicate that a college graduate will earn hundreds of thousands of dollars more in their lifetime than a high school drop out.

As these figures suggest, education is one of the keys to earning a sustainable living that will provide for a family.

So why do so many still leave school or not see education as important to their
futures? How do keep these kids in school and prepare them for the workforce after they've graduated?"

- Dan Fink

YorkCounts sets first town hall in Dover

YorkCounts will travel to Dover Senior High School Nov. 9 for the first in a series of town halls to engage York County residents in a conversation about the work of YorkCounts. The first three town halls - the next ones will be in January and February - will focus on the United Way's Stay in School Report, and especially Judge John Uhler's Truancy Task Force work. YorkCounts is partnering with Dover Area School District to present this first town hall, which will start at 6:30 p.m. in the high school auditorium. For more information, contact Dan Fink at 650-1460 or dfink@yorkcounts.org.

- Dan Fink