Labor Department will steer job seekers to job help via 'navigators'
A $1 million pilot program from the Maine Department of Labor will provide "navigators" to help more than 3,000 job seekers get education, training and social services they need to join the workforce.
Selected through a competitive proposal process, the partner organizations include the Maine AFL-CIO, Maine Equal Justice, Food and Medicine, Prosperity Maine, and Gateway Community Services. Those groups will work with the Labor Department to reach underserved populations who have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and help them get into the workforce.
Under the two-year program, peer navigators will work with immigrant and refugee communities in Lewiston/Auburn and greater Portland, rural communities, low-income families, and workers with any of the 160 unions within Maine AFL-CIO’s statewide network.
“As thousands of Maine workers evaluate what comes next in their work lives, we look forward to directly connecting them with good jobs, registered apprenticeship and training programs and the supports, like childcare or unemployment insurance, they need to achieve economic security and dignity,” said Matt Schlobohm, executive director of the Maine AFL-CIO. “Peer workforce navigators, rooted in their communities, will help build the workforce and high wage economy Mainers need.”
Core elements of the program include conducting outreach and educational activities to raise awareness of workforce opportunities, connecting individuals to jobs, benefits, and workforce programs; and capturing data on program participants to track long-term employment outcomes.
Each group will be responsible for certain aspects of the program.
Maine Equal Justice will develop and deliver training for navigators; the Maine AFL-CIO will incorporate its lessons learned during the pandemic on conducting effective outreach to communities; Food and Medicine will incorporate lessons from similar peer support programs, and Prosperity Maine and Gateway Community Services will provide critical links between the immigrant, refugee and asylum-seeker communities and needed workforce, training and basic needs resources.
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