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In past years, BWDB spearheaded projects affecting the workforce such as Workforce Housing aimed at keeping housing affordable and attainable for Brevard’s teachers, police officers, nurses and others who were priced out of the market, and Project SEARCH which assists those with disabilites enter the world of work and become contributors to their communities. BWDB sought out and achieved several grant awards. One grant, BEST, was aimed at redirecting at-risk youth – many of whom attended alternative schools or were teetering on the verge of dropping out all together. By providing these young people with occupational and employability skills, job search assistance, and other supportive services, they were able to better prepare for a successful transition into the workforce. When BWDB learned that many of Brevard's businesses were having challenges securing skilled employees we developed a Virtual Job Fair (VJF) to fill that need. Go to www.virtualjobfairfl.com. The Virtual Job Fair has been well received and we continue to improve and grow this product. In fact, over eleven workforce boards across the state and nation have implemented the Virtual Job Fair product for their own regions and it is working well. The VJF allowed us to cross over to the skilled professional and college graduates and alumni creating inroads in the types and quality of job seekers BJL can offer local businesses for their recruitment needs. From disaster recovery to training employed workers through special grants and mature workers on how to use computers, BWDB and Brevard Job Link are making a difference in the community and as each new challenge arrives, BWDB and Brevard Job Link find a way to meet it head on. This program year we saw a significant rise in walk in traffic to the career centers averaging 9,514 a month and web site visits again breaking an all time record averaging 38,385 per month. We saw our unemployment rate start to rise in July 2006 at 3.42 percent, increasing to 4.15 percent in June 2007. With the downturn in the construction industry, this was not unexpected. Full employment is considered to be at 5 percent unemployment which we are still well below. BWDB was honored with several important awards in 2006 and 2007. In June, President Lisa Rice received The Manager of the Year award from the Florida Space Coast Council of the National Management Association and Planning Officer Dawn Hamilton was named one of the '4 Under Forty' by LEAD Brevard. As we look forward, BWDB and Brevard Job Link have taken the lead and are now planning toward the end of the Shuttle program at Kennedy Space Center. Meetings and planning sessions are ongoing and we foresee having programs in place to assist any displaced workers with skills training for crossover into other industries. To facilitate this effort and to offset actions taken to absorb funding cuts from the federal and state levels, BWDB secured a mobile unit called Brevard Job Link Express. The Express will allow Brevard Job Link to arrive at any given business to provide services in the event of a down sizing or ramp up of new employees. Brevard Workforce Development Board, Inc. and Brevard Job Link are considered leading edge in the world of workforce delivery across the country and we continue to scan our horizons for grants and best practices to bring Brevard what is needed to stay ahead of the workforce curve.
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