Chiropractor Tara Watson took a gamble and bought a building at Penn
Avenue N. and W. Broadway Avenue, on the frayed east-west commercial artery of
north Minneapolis. Six years later, Watson employs 40 people at her Watson
Chiropractic, Exceptional Home Health Care agency and an adjacent Anytime
Fitness exercise club that draws from the neighborhood and northern suburbs.
“What better way to help create a more vibrant Broadway than to get out
and make it myself,” Watson says. “And we still need to fill more of
the gaps with commercial and residential developments.”
Watson was raised in the Bronx, New York. She graduated from college in
nursing from Seton Hall University thanks to academic and athletic
scholarships, and moved here to attend chiropractic school.
Watson is president of the West Broadway Business and Area Coalition, a
rejuvenated, 200-plus member organization. She is also a leader in an effort to
develop more retail, food, health and arts-related businesses in the area. In addition, Watson helps coach an inner-city youth track team.
Read more about Tara and the other women who are working to revitalize
West Broadway here.
Wanted Analytics Will Help
Minneapolis Job Seekers
Over the last six months, DEED, the Itasca Project, the City of
Minneapolis, and Greater Twin Cities United Way (GTCUW) have explored the use
of Wanted Analytics – a real-time data analytics tool – for a variety of
employment and training programs. In a recent Itasca Project pilot done in
workforce centers throughout the state, real-time analytics produced the
following results:
- 90% of Workforce Center counselors said Wanted Analytics was effective
in supporting client decision making
- 74% of job seekers agreed that the data from Wanted Analytics improved
their decisions about their education, career, and/or job search
- 90% of employers who used Wanted Analytics data as part of program
advisory committees felt the new data improved their counsel and guidance
The City of Minneapolis and GTCUW are collaborating to provide an
opportunity for community based jobs and training programs to have licenses to
use Wanted Analytics. We are excited that a number of nonprofits have stepped
forward and will be participating in our local pilot project. Our hope is that
after piloting these tools, we will see job seekers and our business and
training partners better able to access real time jobs data that will
ultimately help connect job seekers to jobs. More information about Wanted
Analytics can be found here.
IT Ready, a program that provides IT training to individuals who lack
opportunity, held an open house ribbon-cutting ceremony May 27, 2015 at its new
Edina location.
Debra Bahr-Helgen, Director of City of Minneapolis Employment and
Training, who spoke at the ceremony, said “Minneapolis-St. Paul is one of 20
regions named by the White House for its TechHire Initiative. One of the key
partners in our TechHire effort is IT-Ready. We are very excited for the joint
work we'll be doing to make the Minneapolis-St. Paul area a hub for technology
that will open up opportunities for everyone to thrive in the tech field.”
IT-Ready training is offered free of charge in order to help unemployed
and under-employed individuals enter the IT field, which has a shortage of
qualified workers.
Since the program was established in Minneapolis /St. Paul in 2012,
more than 120 individuals have graduated from IT-Ready, with nearly 95 percent
earning their CompTIA A+ certification and 80 percent moving into paid IT roles
with area companies after graduation.
To see what's required of IT-Ready participants and all that they
receive, potential employers, mentors, apprentices and community partners can
learn more about IT Ready here.
Learn more
about TechHire.
DEED Deputy Commissioner Jeremy Hanson Willis joined experts and
community leaders from the University of Minnesota and across the state to talk
about issues related to aging and the agency’s role in developing and retaining
older workers in Minnesota.
More U.S. workers ages 55 and over (almost 33 million) are employed
than ever before, accounting for just over one-fifth of the total labor force,
according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. In
Minnesota, 636,500 workers aged 55 years and over accounted for 21.2 percent of
the total labor force.
For those wanting or needing an encore career, the average time
required to land a job is longer. Mature workers who use multiple job search
strategies such as networking, job banks, and social media may find the time
between jobs greatly reduced.
Find more information and resources here.
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