One Stop Activities

 

Dianna Simar joined the AFWD team in November. Dianna is a longtime resident of Sierra County
and is excited about being part of AFWD and looking forward to being able to help her community.

Dianna’s first day on the job took her to Downieville with Traci Holt, Holly Schirmer, Laurie Wann and
Michele Piller(CEO of Plumas Rural Services and NoRTEC WIB Member). John and Liz Luster,
owners of the Carriage House Inn, hosted a focus group for Downieville and Sierra City business
owners. The need for seasonal employees for this resort community was discussed as well as
other challenges faced by the local businesses. The AFWD team hopes to meet with businesses
again in late winter and be able to offer some solutions to this community.

Meeting with the owners of the Carriage House.

Job Coach Training
November 26-28, 2007

AFWD along with other NoRTECservice providers, attending Richard Knowdell's Job Coach Training
in Oroville, CA.The training was on job and career transition coaching. The instructor was Richard Knowdell
of The Career Planning and Adult Development Network. The workshop taught us many new skills that we
were all eager to take back to our clients. In addition to the class room time we had the opportunity to get
together in the evenings for a bit of fun and relaxation. It was a very informative and fun few days.

Financing Your Business Conference!

Together, NoRTEC and AFWD, Inc. sponsored a Northeastern California Regional Conference,
“Financing Your Business,” which was held in Susanville, California at the Lassen County Fairgrounds
on December 11. This Conference was designed for entrepreneurs, business start-ups, and existing
businesses. The event was a great success, with nearly 100 people attending. Stewart Knox,
Executive Director of North Central Counties Consortium provided the welcome and opening remarks
followed by three-(3) panels of speakers; Panel One was comprised of private investors and commercial
lenders, Panel Two was successful entrepreneurs, and Panel Three address your business financing profile.
During the breaks, attendees networked with one another and the speakers.

For more detailed information about the event, including panelist,
please click here.

 

Brent Smith, of Sierra Economic Development Corporation spreads the word about the services available to businesses.

Sierra County Partnerships

Through a partnership with Sierra County Social Services, the GED program conducts classes at the
Sierra Work Connection. The program continues to be a success. Mr. Ernie Teague, GED Instructor, has
7 students currently enrolled and is expecting 3 of them to obtain their GED certificate within the next
few months. Congratulations Ernie and students!

AFWD has been in discussions with Carol Roberts, Director of Sierra County Social Services, and is
pleased to announce that AFWD will be conducting weekly assessments on Social Service clients. The assessments will be conducted by Athea Stephenson, Youth Program Manager for AFWD. Athea has
many years experience and holds the necessary skills and requirements to conduct the assessments.

AFWD is also working with Sierra County to post open job positions on the Job Boards
currently located in Plumas, Sierra, Lassen and Modoc Counties. In addition, AFWD is working
with the local EDD office to post openings on CalJobs. As we continue to move forward with
the HR assistance in Sierra County, we will also be working with other NoRTEC service
providers to also help spread the word on open positions in Sierra County.

AFWD will also be serving both business and job seeker clients in Downieville on the 2nd and 4th
Thursday's of each month. For more information about Sierra County,please visit
the County's website .

 

AFWD - The Big Picture

Holly Schirmer, Director of Business Services and Traci Holt, Executive Director for AFWD, had the
privilege of presenting at the October 2007, WIB/GB Meeting. The focus of the presentation was to
highlight AFWD's successes from July 1, 2007. AFWD started 2007-2008 renewed emphasis on the
business first philosophy. The business first approach places the highest priority on serving the human
resource needs of small businesses. As more business customers are pleased with the services received
from the One-Stops, including recruiting assistance, the more job orders they bring to the One-Stops. And
more job orders bring in more job seekers, which increase the applicant pool available to employers. It’s a
win, win situation for small business and job seekers. Our motto is, “Serving businesses to serve job seekers.”

We have worked diligently to reorganize the operations of the company to implement procedures that
meet the needs of businesses. AFWD offers its services in four counties including Lassen, Plumas, Sierra,
and Modoc, an area covering over 13,000 sq miles.

The results so far have been very impressive. More employers are utilizing AFWD’s human resource services
and the requests for job order posting and customized recruitments are growing each week. Customized recruitments range from accepting applications for the employer, to pre screening, interviewing, and reference checking. In addition, the numbers of job seekers coming to the One-Stops continues to grow. Currently
AFWD has an applicant pool of close to 500 job seekers looking for work. That’s the kind of pool that
employers are eager to tap. The bottom line is that people are obtaining satisfying jobs in the communities
in which they live, and our businesses are getting the employees they are looking for.

To view the presentation and see the honor that Holly and Traci received
from the AFWD Team, please click here.

A BIG Thanks to the AFWD Team for all of your accomplishments!!

 

To learn more about what we can do for you, contact your local One-Stop Employment Center or visit www.afwdhr.org

PLUMAS WORK CONNECTION, 283-WORK

LASSEN CAREER NETWORK, 257-5057

MODOC EMPLOYMENT CENTER, 233-4161

SIERRA WORK CONNECTION, 993-4295