Arkansas Workforce Center opens in Landmark Building
The Arkansas Workforce Center, a resource for community members to utilize when looking for a job, announced its opening in the Landmark Building in downtown Hot Springs on Tuesday with a ribbon-cutting hosted by The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s all about jobs, and some people come to obstacles where they need a support system, and through our agency along with Workforce Adult Education, we have the supporting resources to help people to become successful and get out there,” Arkansas Rehabilitation Services Chief of Field Services Carl Daughtery said.
In a combined effort, the Division of Workforce Services and Arkansas Rehabilitation Services will relocate to the building to run the center as a way to expand employment opportunity for community members from Garland, Montgomery, Pike, Clark and Hot Spring counties.
“The services available in the Division of Workforce Services and Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, along with our partners Arkansas Services for the Blind and Arkansas Adult Education, reflect the long-standing and ongoing work to dedicated workforce professionals,” Charisse Childers, director of the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services, said during the ribbon-cutting event.
Childers said the center will provide a range of education, employment and training programs, while also providing “high-quality” customer service to all job-seekers, workers and businesses.
“This effort also aligns with the division addition of the Department of Commerce, and of Gov. Hutchinson, by transforming state government through efficiency and cost-saving measures to streamline operations while delivering quality services to the citizens of Arkansas,” she said. “These efforts will allow us to better utilize state resources as we direct the savings to the people of Arkansas, and through the services that we can provide.”
The creation of the integrated “one-stop location,” Childers said, was the cornerstone of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998.
“Through the years, advances in technology and models built on best practices have allowed us to have a more integrated, job-driven, public workforce system, as required by the Workforce
Education and Opportunity Act that is now in place,” she said. “The American Job Centers are a valued resource to communities across the state and the nation, bringing together employment, education and economic development, to respond to the regional job growth and support for employers.
“Today the services provided through the workforce centers across the state, including here in Hot Springs, are a shared responsibility in the state: The state workforce board, the local workforce boards, the elected officials on these boards and the WIOA partners.
“These partnerships allow for services to be integrated to better serve all consumers; ensuring the needs of workers, youth and individuals with barriers to employment, including individuals with disabilities, are addressed and that we are providing access to services through the one-stop system.”