Illinois agencies garner nearly $12 million to support innovative workforce development efforts

CHICAGO - June 14, 2012. Governor Pat Quinn and U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today announced that Illinois received nearly $15 million in federal Workforce Innovation Funds from the U.S. Department of Labor. The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), in partnership with the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) and the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB), received nearly $12 million to implement their innovative workforce development initiatives and the Chicago Workforce Investment Council received $3 million. The funds are part of $146.9 million in Workforce Innovation Fund grants to develop and expand innovative strategies to help Americans return to work. Maintaining a top-notch workforce is critical to ensuring that Illinois remains attractive to growing businesses.

"Putting people back to work is our top priority in Illinois," Governor Quinn said. "This federal support will bolster our efforts to prepare workers for the changing workplace and continue to ensure Illinois has the strongest workforce in the nation."

The Workforce Innovation Funds the state applied for are used to deliver workforce services more efficiently, facilitate cooperation across programs and funding streams, and focus on partnerships with specific employers or industry sectors to develop programs that reflect current and future skill needs. DCEO received the $11,999,985 grant for its innovative Illinois Pathways Initiative, which helps to scale regional industry partnerships to the needs of both employers as well as the most vulnerable populations served through the public workforce investment system, including low-income adults and long-term unemployed workers.

"Throughout Illinois, workforce development facilities work with local community colleges to help determined workers learn the skills they need to find employment in their community," U.S. Senator Dick Durbin said.  "Today's federal funding will allow these facilities to continue to create and expand innovative and regional solutions to fill critical job openings at growing Illinois businesses."

The Illinois Pathways Initiative will use today's grant funds to implement state economic development, workforce development and education policies to establish and support regional public-private partnerships throughout the state, with the initial project focus on the manufacturing sector. Illinois agency partners will work with employers to define career pathways for regional workforces, build regional workforce pipelines and help workers combine basic academic and technical skills to prepare them for immediate entry into skilled employment with industry-recognized credentials. It also will incorporate education systems to help workers along their career path and obtain work-based training, and provide individualized transition and support services.

"Illinois workers and businesses will benefit from the support our programs have received today, and we will continue working each day to ensure our workforce is well-equipped to navigate this economy," IDES Director Jay Rowell said. "This grant validates our innovative workforce development efforts to leverage industry partnerships to help meet employer needs while expanding opportunities for workers."

The U.S. government will lose about $23 billion on the 2008-2009 bailout of General Motors and Chrysler. President Obama emphatically defends his decision to subsidize the automakers, arguing it was necessary to prevent massive job losses. But, even accepting this premise, the government could have executed the bailout with no net cost to taxpayers. It could have?had the Administration required the United Auto Workers (UAW) to accept standard bankruptcy concessions instead of granting the union preferential treatment. The extra UAW subsidies cost $26.5 billion?more than the entire foreign aid budget in 2011. The Administration did not need to lose money to keep GM and Chrysler operating. The Detroit auto bailout was, in fact, a UAW bailout....read more

Washington, DC - The Club for Growth today launched a new Spending Cut Scorecard designed for members of the public and Club Members to track how members of the House of Representatives are voting on amendments to cut spending from the FY13 appropriations bills. In the past, the Club for Growth tracked amendments to cut earmarks from appropriations bills, but recently noticed that many House members who ran on promises to cut spending have abandoned their pledges to do so.

The Club will include clean spending cut amendments and will update the Spending Cut Scorecard following the passage of every appropriations bill. To view the new Spending Cut Scorecard, click here: www.ClubForGrowth.org/SpendingCutScorecard

Thus far, interesting statistics from the Spending Cut Scorecard include :

• 20 members of the House have voted for every amendment to cut spending. All are Republicans.
• 50 members of the House have voted against every amendment to cut spending. 49 are Democrats. One is a Republican (Bonner).
• The average Republican voted for spending cuts 59% of the time.  Republican Freshman are only slightly better at 60%.
• The average Democrat voted for spending cuts 6% of the time.
• The nine Republicans, including four freshmen, who have least often voted to cut spending are: Bonner 0%, Meehan 4%, LaTourette 4%, Bass 4%, Simpson 4%, Lucas 4%, King, P. 4%, Grimm 4%, and Dold 4%
• The eight Democrats who have most often voted to cut spending are: Matheson 32%, Rush 31%, Kucinich 30%, Polis 28%, Cooper 20%, McIntyre 17%, Velazquez 17%, and Honda 17%

"It is good news that Congress is finally talking about spending cuts, but our review of voting records show that we have a long way to go if we're going to achieve smaller government," said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola. "It's important that Americans hold their members of Congress accountable for their votes and the Club for Growth intends to continue to make it easy for them to do so."

"The Club continues to be disappointed, in particular, by the big spenders in the Republican Party. With a $16 trillion debt, voting to keep discretionary spending in appropriations bills is simply kicking hard choices into the future and passing the buck to future generations. House Leadership is clearly not pushing its conference to vote for spending cuts offered on the floor," added Chocola.

The Club for Growth is the nation's leading group promoting economic freedom through legislative involvement, issue advocacy, research, and education.

I remember when the Internet first gained prominence and it became apparent that having a Web site was essential for any commercial enterprise.

Back then, Web designers were not plentiful and few people thought to hire a professional to create a Web site. They felt that ANY Web presence was better than none at all, and they found people they knew to help them who were "into the whole Internet thing."

As a PR professional, when I would see a Web site that didn't represent people well or looked amateurish, I'd ask who created it. Invariably, I'd get answers like, "My nephew did it," or "I bought Web Design for Dummies and did it myself," or "My son has a friend who just graduated with a degree in computer science."  While those days have passed for Web sites, I'm afraid I am seeing the same thing happen with regard to social media.

As social media has become a serious part of the foundation of the media in general, some people regard it the same way as they used to regard Web sites - as something that's a good addition to their marketing tactics, but not so essential that they need to approach it with a professional sensibility. As with any marketing outreach, social media done badly will actually set you back instead of move you forward. Here are some ways to know if you are taking the right approach or heading down the wrong path:

• My Daughter Does That For Me - If your daughter is a college graduate with a broad-based education that includes a degree in mass communications, I'd say you may be on the right track. However, if she's 18 and her primary qualification is that she has Twitter and Facebook accounts, I'd say you need to reevaluate your choice of marketing personnel here. Just because she's your daughter and can use Facebook and Twitter, doesn't mean she has the skills necessary to market a business using social media.

• I Hired a College Intern - While college students may be part of the social media generation, it doesn't automatically qualify them to do social media for you. Unlike traditional media, which is a communication to a broad audience, social media is one-to-one marketing outreach. You are communicating directly to individuals and anyone who has ever posted an opinion in an Internet forum knows the online audience is not to be trifled with. Understand that your reputation is on the line. With the variety of questions and comments you will receive, it is critical that they're handled with care and professionalism to avoid any repercussions to your name and brand. A social media marketing professional is an astute communicator who ensures each time the right tone, caring and message is delivered for maximum return and keeps your audience engaged. This dynamic is crucial for the success of the program.

• I Got 11 New Followers on Twitter This Week - Of course, building followers is important, but you'll never make a social media campaign work with the onesy-twosy approach. For myself, my company and our social media clients, we have a monthly benchmark for building followers. Now, this benchmark is not a gross number, but a net figure after we have weeded out spammers, chronic friend adders, and marriage proposals from men in foreign countries, and yes, I've gotten a few of those.

At the end of the day, social media is serious business.  Do it right and you can create a base of thousands of followers.  Do it wrong and you'll have spent a lot of time and energy, spinning your wheels and getting nowhere fast.  More importantly, you'll end up thinking that social media marketing is a complete waste of time, when in fact in today's world it is one of the most critical and fundamental components for any marketing strategy, which every company needs to put in place.

Here's to your successful social media journey.

About Marsha Friedman

Marsha Friedman is a 22-year veteran of the public relations industry. She is the CEO of EMSI Public Relations (www.emsincorporated.com), a national firm that provides PR strategy and publicity services to corporations, entertainers, authors and professional firms. She also co-hosts "The News and Experts Radio Show with Alex and Marsha" on Sirius/XM Channel 131 on Saturdays at 5:00 PM EST.