Liberty County Development Authority officials expressed their happiness in their partnership with a regional workforce development effort. Brynn Grant, LCDA chief executive officer, praised the work of RISE, the Regional Industry Support Enterprise, founded less than two years ago.
“I’m amazed at the work that is being done and I am amazed at the results we’re getting,” she said. “It has been exceptional.”
Anna Chafin, president and CEO of RISE, updated LCDA members on the organization’s activities and its plans going forward. Chafin, a former staff member at the LCDA, also was executive director of the— Chafin told LCDA members.
Development authorities from eight counties, including Liberty, have joined the RISE effort. Chafin said the organization’s third trip to learn best practices took them to west Georgia and the West Point-LaGrange area, where there is a Kia auto assembly plant.
“We wanted to see what they’ve been doing the last 15 years,” she said.
The contingent of 35 people from all eight RISE member counties met with leaders from Kia and Development Authority of Bryan County before forming RISE. RISE has been busy in its seven focus areas — which include child care, housing, transportation and outreach to the military the Callaway Foundation. They also heard presentations from DASH (Dependable Affordable Sustainable Housing), a LaGrange effort to revitalize former mill villages, and Circles of Troup County, which works with underrepresented members of the community to lift them out of poverty.
They also met with officials from the VECTR Center just outside of Fort Benning. The VECTR Center works with veterans and their families to get them into higher education or into the workforce.
“It was a wonderful best practices trip and we hope to start incorporating them into our region,” Chafin said.
Closer to the Coastal Empire, RISE held a college and career showcase at Savannah Technical College’s Eckburg Auditorium. The event, a pilot effort for RISE, brought 200 high school seniors from four counties to meet with industrial employers and representatives from higher education institutions. They also received resume writing assistance through Workforce Coastal.
An eighth grade experience, an event RISE patterned after its first best practices trip to Bowling Green, Kentucky, brought nearly 1,000 eighth graders to Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong campus to meet with 24 employers. Chafin said holding this event during their first semester was intentional, since many of those eighth graders will pick their pathway in the second semester.
RISE will look at holding two of those eighth grade experiences next year, splitting them up with one for the eastern counties in the organization and another for the western-most counties.
A best practices trip to Covington also led to RISE’s educator externship program, where teachers spend a week embedded with a local industry to learn about careers there. Each teacher also receives a $1,000 stipend, courtesy of Georgia Power.
RISE held a military employer forum with more than 60 attendees, and Chafin said they can do a better job of retaining service members and providing spouses and dependents more opportunities.
“We need to do a better job of keeping them here,” she said.
The focus area of underrepresented, such as those workers in need of a second chance or those who are seniors or have a disability, led to a hiring event that drew 60 employers, including 20 in the industrial sector.
Most notably in Liberty County, the LCDA and RISE teamed to host a job fair for workers at the former International Paper site in Riceboro. Along with a similar event in Savannah for the workers at that facility, there were 250 employers and 3,400 job seekers at the two events. There were 300 jobseekers at the Riceboro event.
The RISE Savannah website now has a job board with openings listed from across the region at risesavannah.com. RISE also has conducted employer forums, with 600 attendees at more than 20 such events. Topics at those forums have covered child care, transportation and the results of a wages and benefits survey.
“They have been very helpful,” Chafin said.
Chafin acknowledged that there is a gap in child care availability, especially for children up to 3 years old. RISE has put together a small group to explore solutions. Child care, and the lack of it, is seen as a hindrance for potential employees.
“It’s a capacity issue and an affordability issue,” she said.
Chafin added the state Department of Transportation has launched a commuter feasibility study for the region and will explore what regional transportation efforts may look like.
The LCDA’s initial two-year commitment to RISE expires in June.