Eight counties | 36 cities | one region

ST. JAMES—A workforce development project funded by the Delta Regional Authority (DRA) has officially begun in the Meramec Region starting with a kickoff meeting held Jan. 23 at Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) in St. James.

Workforce development leaders across the eight-sate Delta Region will share more than $1.5 million to transform workforce development in their communities from the DRA, with $128,460 of that funding awarded to Meramec Community Enhancement Corporation (MCEC), a 501(c)3 thatworks in partnership with MRPC. The DRA funds are targeted to the Meramec counties of Crawford, Dent, Phelps and Washington, collectively. The resources will specifically fund technical assistance and capacity building for communities and regional clusters with a particular focus on younger and underserved populations to meet the needs of business and industry.

Locally, the funds will be used to help the four Meramec counties implement their Certified Work Ready Communities (CWRC) action plans. CWRC is a voluntarily initiative at the county level lead by community leaders. It links workforce development to education and aligns economic development needs of communities.

“We believe that teaming with local leaders and investing in our workforce training system from the ground up is the best way to transform our region’s future,” said DRA Federal Co-Chairman Chris Masingill. “These much-needed investments will help us create capacity with systematic change for the hard-working families and residents of the Delta by providing increased pathways for skills attainment and job placement.”

To learn more about the workforce development initiative or the recent summits, watch DRA’s video series on Re-imagining Workforce Development on the DRA website.

The new awards come as part of a $1.7 million workforce development initiative –Reimagining the Delta Workforce – which begun in Summer 2014 to help identify opportunities and implement strategies for enhancing regional and local workforce development systems throughout the DRA footprint.

“All of our Meramec counties have CWRC plans to meet goal, based on population and workforce,” explained MRPC Executive Director Bonnie Prigge. “However, they lacked the funding to implement those plans. This opportunity will spur implementation in Crawford, Dent, Phelps and Washington counties.”

The CWRC process uses ACT’s Work Keys program to certify employee skills in three areas—applied math, locating information and reading for information. While employees 18 and older can be tested for free and earn their National Work Ready Certificates through Missouri Career Centers, there was no funding to test 16 and 17 year olds in the job market.

Businesses will also profile positions as part of CWRC, allowing them to pair the skills needed for success with the certifications of potential job seekers. This process will help reduce turnover and training costs.

“CWRC will provide our economic developers with a way to certify our workforce to prospective companies,” Prigge said. “It gives our employees a way to prove their skills, let employers know they are serious about work, provides greater access to testing, and it can help our businesses hire the right person the first time.”

MCEC is the grant recipient, and MRPC is coordinating the project on behalf of MCEC.
The kickoff meeting allowed key players in the project, including representatives from area technical schools, industrial development authorities, community partnerships and the MissouriDepartment of Economic Development, to come together and discuss how to tailor the project to individual counties.

The next steps are county level meetings to work out logistics of the project.