OREGONIZER
The Official Newsletter of the IAWP Oregon Chapter
FALL 2020 ISSUE
PRESIDENTS NOTES
Good Day Oregon IAWP Members!
You have powered through tremulous times and unprecedented workload changes. You have my admiration for your dedication to our customers, your teammates, and the workforce profession. You richly deserve any sense of pride derived from your efforts to help people through, what has been for many, the most challenging year of their lives.
Like individuals, organizations have had to make many course changes towards what we hope will become better times in the future. To that end, your Oregon Chapter canceled the 2020 in-person spring educational conference. We also canceled many other in-person activities out of concern for our members’ safety, the enormous workload that most of our members are facing every day, and to sustain us through to the better days that will eventually come.
We have reduced Chapter operations to a caretaker board, which will see us through into 2021, when we hope to resume our normal board nominations and elections. We are exploring educational opportunities that can be brought to members virtually instead of in person. Though networking opportunities abound at in-person events, so do costs. Positives for virtual events are safety, and cost savings for both the Chapter and members. Travel time and expenses don’t exist when using Zoom or a platform like Drop In.
The Drop-In experience for the International sponsored Workforce Dev 2020 conference proved to be very engaging. It was pioneered by Oregon’s own Amber Drake and Grant Axtell, with help from Maryland’s Nancy Fink. They attracted world-class presenters that spoke on topics of great importance for the professional work issues we face today. Stay tuned for possible Workforce Dev experiences at the Chapter level in the future.
Finally, I want to say how proud I am to serve with you in this Chapter. The diversity of people we embrace in this organization can be found in the pictures from our 2019 spring conference. Also, because of the wide variety of work our members perform. From Title-1 training to IT program development and implementation, tax and unemployment operations, to workforce research and reemployment services. You-all do it all and so very well! Thank you for being a part of our Oregon Chapter.
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The Apprentice Will Rebuild America’s Middle Class
Forbes - 10/29/20
Yes, this is a play on the president’s once-successful television show, but it is really about something more important: the country’s growing recognition that college for everyone is a failed idea. Read more....
'I had to start my future': Workers who lost jobs because of COVID-19 find new careers in these fields
USA Today - 10/22/20
As the health crisis continues to rage across the country and more temporary job losses become permanent, a small but growing number of laid-off and working Americans in hard-hit industries like restaurants, retail, and travel are switching to new careers or occupations. Read more....
Career Coaching Can Help Workers Navigate an Increasingly Complex and Evolving Labor Market
Aspen Institute - 10/20/20
While COVID-19 has led to significant personal and economic devastation, it is also precipitating a permanent structural transformation of the economy. Read more....
Three Ways Artificial Intelligence Can Help Boost Youth Employment
World Bank Blogs | 10/15/20
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform youth employment programs. A new IFC report includes several examples of how AI can improve access, relevance, and efficiency of youth services in emerging regions. Read more....
The Unemployment Rate Has Gone Down, But Fewer Americans Expect To Return To Their Old Jobs
MarketWatch - 10/6/20
The ‘recall-unemployment’ rate fell to 2.9%, while the share of Americans who weren’t expecting to be called back to work grew. Read more....
Manufacturers Keep The Lines Running With Drive-Thru Job Fairs
HR Dive - October 7, 2020
As the pandemic shut down offices and other worksites around the country, it took many key pieces of the usual workday with it. This has notably complicated the recruiting process, with many organizations accelerating their adoption of recruiting technology. Read more....
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Improving Workforce Development for Youth and Young Adults with Disabilities Webinar
On October 21, 2020, representatives from the USDOL and The Council of State Governments shared information from states using novel approaches to youth service delivery via a Zoom webinar sponsored by IAWP. This team opened windows into the diverse strategies states had been taking in career development for youth with disabilities. How the states have responded creatively to the challenges presented by the pandemic were also highlighted.
Presenters included Sydney Geiger, Policy Analyst, and Dina Klimkina, Program Manager, both with The Council of State Governments (established 1933) CAPE Youth program; and Kirk Lew – Supervisor, Youth Team, Office of Disability Employment Policy, U.S. Department of Labor. Their initiatives always include a strong “nothing about us without us” component to ensure efforts are focused on what youth with disabilities want and need.
They highlighted efforts from seven different states to customize services to youth with disabilities. Each have displayed resilience in the face of COVID-19. Texas vocational rehabilitation is offering online Student Transition Fairs to share job training learning experiences and to facilitate career exploration opportunities for disabled youth. Colorado is providing IEP Tele-Facilitation access to schools and families; Maine and New Jersey are offering in-home support for mental health needs. Wisconsin is offering telehealth mental health services freely to schools, rather than to student’s individual homes.
For details on these and other innovative services, explore: Michigan’s Alt Shift Lending Library; Washington’s LRE – Least Restrictive Environment; North Carolina’s Remote Learning Parent & Caretaker Resources. To learn more, visit the CAPE-Youth website at https://capeyouth.org/ and visit their Resources and COVID-19 pages for information specifically about serving youth with disabilities in this challenging time.
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NOT A MEMBER YET?
Virtual is here to stay!
Wow! Virtual! What an impact on our lives since March. Virtual can be defined as both a noun or an adjective. An adjective in “nearly as described, but not completely” “near enough, for all practical purposes.” The word becomes a noun when we are talking about a specific “Virtual Event”.
How has your life been affected by virtual meetings or events? Are you working from home? Wearing lipstick when you never wore it at work? Keeping that beard very trimmed? Are you smiling inside with that nice shirt or blouse that you are wearing and knowing you have PJ’s on the bottom?
Are you one of the people reaching out to family on the virtual platform? Are you training your aunt, uncle, or grandmother to use virtual programs so you can talk to them and stay safe?? Attending meetings in your neighborhood? Learning to use different virtual platforms to have a meeting, to train customers, or to have live events for your customers? Are you learning a lot of new information? Climbing that steep hill of the learning curve?
I read an article by Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365, written in April of 2020, about the “Remote work trend report” around meetings. I found it fascinating by the changes COVID-19 brought to our lives.
The study asked 14,000 people in seven countries to name the form of communication that makes them happiest. In no surprise, in-person meetings ranked number one over email, chat, or texting across all generations. They all discussed ways to connect when face-to-face is not possible.
In the report, millions of people around the world were found to be adjusting to full-time remote work and learning. Working remotely full-time can challenge us as humans because we are hardwired for connection.
This is reflected by Microsoft Teams and the statistics they gathered. Recently, Microsoft Team saw a new daily record of 2.7 billion meeting minutes in one day, a 200 percent increase from 900 million meeting minutes on March 16 of this year.
What does this have to do with you? Young or old, we are all on a sharp learning curve! Schools, businesses and even personal sharing in the virtual world have come hard and fast. We Skype, we Zoom, we connect with Adobe Connect and many other programs. That’s a lot to learn! Remembering to mute when you are chewing that health bar, slurping your coffee and sneezing, the whole meeting is just part of the learning. The waiting to speak and finally, you start to speak at the same time as three others. New social rules are evolving as we navigate how to communicate online.
The meetings we have at work virtually in the mornings help keep that connection with our teams. The daily work information, the laughter between the teams, and most important, the ability to share in a virtual face-to-face with your co-workers releases much of the strain and isolation many feel without the face-to-face in-person contact.
Along with work, you can attend neighborhood meetings, the many trainings, civic meetings, and presentations. The thing I like most is seeing family from across the country. I did not try to use virtual platforms until I had to. It has opened my whole world to closeness with friends and family I had not had because of the distance between us. Think of all you can do now! Reach out to take advantage of this new skill and move forward with confidence. It will feel good! Learn and become the subject expert in your block or on your team and know this is a skill to take forward in your future.
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Get A Grip!
“Put ‘er in the old vise.” That’s Brett Farve’s (retired quarterback of the Green Bay Packers) way of asking for a handshake. But handshakes, carpools, and buffet dining are “on hold” in this COVID-19, world. Handshakes were a great way of greeting as well as sealing a deal, and in my practice as a physician, a way to assess a patient’s general health status.
Beyond a civil greeting and depending on what’s going on with the patient, I measure the grip strength (an essential part of a handshake) with a device to get a reading on their forearm muscular function, nervous system integrity, joint mobility, and stability of their upper body. Much research has been done on grip strength and physical condition revealing a high correlation between a strong grip intensity and physical endurance, agility, and the strength of the entire body.
Not only is good gripping ability important to the biomechanics of the body, especially the upper body, exercising the grip has the benefit of lowering blood pressure by as much as ten percent. Strengthening exercises for grip can be done by simply squeezing a rolled dishcloth. By bending your wrist backward, forward, and to both sides against resistance applied by the other hand, with several strengthening sessions during the day, you should note an improvement in no time. Be sure to start slowly and stop exercises if you feel pain, experience numbness, or have any uncomfortable sensations in your hands, wrists, elbows, shoulder, or upper back and neck. Best to see your doctor who understands biomechanics before any exercise program is begun.
“Get a grip” is always sound advice and particularly these days. Your Well-Being depends on it.
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TRAININGS & WEBINAR'S OFFERED TO MEMBERS VIA IAWP INTERNATIONAL
E-LEARNING & ONLINE COURSES
IAWP WEBINARS
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UPCOMING EVENTS
What is NEXT: A New President, A New Congress, and Workforce Development
Lee Foley, Capitol Hill Partners
January 26, 2021, 11:00 AM
For more than 30 years, Lee Foley has worked as one of Washington's foremost counselors on policy and legislative advocacy. Lee advises clients and represents various interests before the U.S. Congress and the Executive Branch on issues involving employment security, employment and training, and job creation.
More information coming soon .
Tuesday, Jan 26, 2021, 11:00 AM
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GET SOCIAL!
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Wednesday, Nov 11, 2020, 04:30 PM
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LIGHTER SIDE
2020/21 Oregon IAWP Board
CONTRIBUTORS WANTED
Requires: An interest to contribute. Knowledge of English, spelling, grammar and punctuation, journalistic writing and editing procedures and skill in the use of Microsoft Word preferred.
Duties: Write articles and features based on research and inter-views; conceive ideas for content; arrange for content from other sources; and select and edit photos and artwork to benefit the educational and professional interests of Oregon Chapter IAWP members.
Pay: The gratitude and admiration of your fellow Oregon Chapter IAWP members and the joy of seeing your name in print.
How to Apply: Submit articles or express interest by e-mail to Steve Strain at reedman18@gmail.com
The Oregonizer
VOLUME 48, ISSUE 1
Contributors:
Barbee Williams
Steve Corwin
Mark J. Butterfield, D.C.
Email: info@iawporegon.org
Website: http://iawporegon.org
Location: PO Box 7625 Salem OR 97303