Southern Growth Policies Board and Southern Governors Recognize Innovative Programs to Responding to Globalization with Awards at Regional Conference

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.— The Connecting People to Jobs initiative was honored on June 13, 2004 with a regional Innovator award as part of the Globally Positioning the South conference held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on June 13-15, 2004. Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry presented Russell Knight, of the Midlands Workforce Development Board, and Alicia Ballagh, a Community Coordinator with Connecting People to Jobs program, with an Innovator award at the opening session of the conference. Each year Southern Growth Policies Board, a regional public policy think tank, recognizes innovative programs in the South that are improving the quality of life in the region.

The Globally Positioning the South Innovators included a collection of 14 public, private, academic and nonprofit organizations that are responding to the forces of globalization with unique programs to develop international trade; integrate foreign visitors (students, investors) into the community; provide international education for students or adults; prevent job dislocation or help those affected recover faster; and build strategic and productive relationships overseas. More than 100 programs from across the Southern region were nominated. A regional panel of experts chose the innovative program winners.

Connecting People to Jobs (CPTJ) is an initiative by Acercamiento Hispanio de Carolina del Sur (a nonprofit dedicated to improving the quality of life of the Hispanic/Latino population in South Carolina) and the Midlands Workforce Investment Area. CPTJ is one of only three projects selected nationally by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation to move low-income Hispanic and Latino residents into living wage jobs by connecting them with job training, education, and support services. CPTJ forms collaborative partnerships with South Carolina employers and service providers and assists job seekers in identifying available learning opportunities in such areas as Graduate Equivalency Degree completion, English as a Second Language, and job skills development.

The program also identifies participants with necessary skills to meet employer needs and provides job readiness training and skills development. Other projects of the CPTJ program include offering introductory computer courses in Spanish at the Columbia One-Stop center utilizing instructors from Richland One School District Adult Education, a Bi-Lingual Job Fair and workplace-specific English classes.

About Southern Growth Policies Board

Southern Growth Policies Board is a non-partisan public policy think tank based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Formed by the region’s governors in 1971, Southern Growth Policies Board develops and advances visionary economic development policies by providing a forum for collaboration among a diverse cross-section of the region’s governors, legislators, business and academic leaders and the economic- and community-development sectors. Supported by the governments of 13 Southern states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Southern Growth provides its members, and the region, with authoritative research, discussion forums and pilot projects in the areas of technology and innovation, globalization, workforce development, community development, civic engagement and leadership. To learn more about Southern Growth Policies Board, visit www.southern.org.