New Team Member:

Sierra Work Connection welcomes our newest team member Katie Russell. Katie has accepted the position as the new Career Center Advisor, here in Sierra County. She is a local and has grown up here in Sierra County. She is a 2002 Loyalton High School graduate and still lives here because she loves the area and wants her daughter, who is 4 years old, to grow up here as well. Katie feels we have a wonderful community here in Sierra County. Katie was able to go and visit Lassen and Plumas counties AFWD offices where she was welcomed with kindness, friendliness, and helpfulness from everyone she met. Katie is very excited and happy to be a part of the AFWD team and we are very excited to have her on board. This addition to our staff will help us to ensure our goal of making Sierra Work Connection the place to go for job seekers and employers alike here in Sierra County.

ARRA $ AT WORK

Sierra Kids

In Sierra County, we placed 9 youth in summer positions. We were fortunate to be able to match most of the youth with employers in a field they were interested in exploring. Two of our participants were interested in pursuing early childhood education as a career path. One of these youth had just finished her first year of college in that field and was home for the summer. The other had just graduated high school and planning to attend Sacramento State with a major in early childhood education. Both were excited upon learning that they would be able to work in their field and earn money that would help them realize their goals.
Kim turner is the director of Sierra Kids Learning Center in Loyalton. She too was excited to have some extra help and be able to mentor these young people. Kim and her staff worked hard to make the youth feel like part of the team and give them a great experience. The two girls were tasked with creating a new curriculum for the two year olds and then implementing the curriculum in the classroom. This was a big responsibility but our participants were up for the challenge and in the end they were successful and this curriculum will continue to be used.
When asked what they took away from the experience one of the youth remarked, “When you walk into a preschool it may look like these kids are just playing but actually the play is designed to help them become successful in school. They do science projects that teach them about how things grow etc. The goal is to make learning fun.”
The teachers all agreed that having these youth participate enabled them to do projects that in the past were impossible due to staffing issues. One commented “These kids got so much more one on one time as a result of having the extra staff. I wish our funding allowed us to have the extra help all the time”
Both of the youth that participated feel that they have a much better understanding of the field because of their experience. Everyone involved in this work experience (AFWD staff Sierra Kids staff and the participants) came away with a feeling of success.

New business in town
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Loyalton has a new business in town. William Quinn has opened Quinn’s pizza at the Country Cookin’ restaurant located at 820 Main St. Their specialty is gourmet pizza but they plan to expand their menu to include wings, salad as well as some pasta dishes. Some of the great ideas William has for his business include having movie nights so the community can get together for a movie and enjoy wonderful food and the great company of their friends and neighbors. Also being planned is Monday night football specials. Come in and enjoy the game on the big screen or have pizza delivered to you. Quinn’s Pizzeria has employed a driver who will deliver anywhere in the valley for a small delivery fee. Quinn’s has only been open for a few weeks and is getting rave reviews

William was the chef at Sierra Valley Lodge prior to moving to Loyalton and has always had a dream of operating his own restaurant. When he arrived in Loyalton, William was in a transition stage and unsure of what the future held for him and his young son. Initially his stay was to be temporary. He needed to recharge the batteries, visit family and then decide where to go from here. He had no intentions on staying in the area but felt that everything lined up when this opportunity came along. William felt that even with the sluggish economy he had to give it a shot. We are all optimistic and excited about having a pizza parlor in town.

William has been working with the staff at Sierra Work Connection for recruiting employees as well as business advice and sometimes just someone to bounce ideas off of. He is appreciative that there is somewhere for new business owners to come and get support and answers to the many questions that may help avoid the pitfalls of operating your own business. We are happy to have the opportunity to help William start a new business in Loyalton and wish him the best of luck in this endeavor.

Sierra County Board

With the hard economic times it is more important than ever that we here at Sierra Work Connection are able to support our businesses and job seekers. To this end, we try to attend as many local meetings with our county boards and committees as possible. This participation ensures that we are aware of the issues as well as the resources in our communities. This also gives us the opportunity to make everyone aware of our services and what we can do to help. We thank the Board of Supervisors for their continued support and look forward to providing as much help as possible to the businesses and the job seekers in Sierra County. It is our goal that the services we provide will enable our clients, both businesses and job seekers, to weather the storm and become stronger than before.