A new Snohomish County jobs program is aimed at getting the long-term unemployed back to work.
Project RISE is funded by a federal grant. It is targeting people who have used up all their unemployment benefits, or are mere weeks away from losing them, said Mark Caldwell, operations manager for WorkSource Snohomish. Some of these people lost their jobs in the recession, sent out countless resumes with no callbacks, and finally gave up.
“It’s a pretty large audience,” he said, “but they’re pretty hard to reach.”
Some of them may have even exhausted other services, such as welfare and food stamps, he said.
With that in mind, WorkSource Snohomish is posting flyers at various locales, including homeless shelters, as well contacting the media, to get word out there is hope for them.
Getting them back to work means recognizing the stress they’ve endured. Forty-five to 50 percent of the long-term unemployed have anxiety issues, Caldwell said. Some have forgotten how to relate to groups of people and can be intimidated by the number of people at WorkSource Snohomish headquarters at the Everett Transit Station. That’s one reason Project RISE workshops will be held at Volunteers of America offices down the street at California and Broadway.
Project RISE is an acronym for Reconnecting Individuals with Sustainable Employment. participation starts with three consecutive days of half-day workshops, Caldwell said.
Two sessions are scheduled this month: March 10, 11, 12 and March 24, 25, 26. Day one is 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and days two and three are 12:30 to 4 p.m.
Workshops have a motivational focus, Caldwell said, reminding participants that they do have job skills and, with proper training, can get back into the game.
An initial experimental session drew six people to listen to a talk by an aerospace-manufacturing representative, he said. Three of those people were hired by the company, which will provide them job training at $15 to $16 an hour, and more after training, he said.
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