Workforce Coalition Unveils Raise the Bar Hancock County Organization will address challenges of local workforce

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1 CONTACT: Laurie Zydonik Raise the Bar Hancock County Director Office: Mobile: For Immediate Release: Workforce Coalition Unveils Raise the Bar Hancock County Organization will address challenges of local workforce Findlay, OH September 7, 2016 Raise the Bar Hancock County is a new nonprofit organized through a partnership of public, private and government entities to address the challenges facing Hancock County s workforce. The unveiling took place at the Community Education and Wellness Center on the Findlay campus of Owens Community College on Wednesday. Raise the Bar developed out of a three year process involving more than 100 people representing 35 corporations, nonprofit organizations and education institutions. Tony Iriti, Findlay Hancock Economic Development director said, Through the coalition building process, it was determined that Hancock County needed to raise the bar in regard to employing people, filling positions and improving lives of our citizens. It takes a system to address the challenges and we are taking a systematic, comprehensive approach to meeting a community challenge. That systematic approach is now a stand-alone organization called Raise the Bar Hancock County. Iriti introduced Laurie Zydonik as the director of Raise the Bar and Dan Sheaffer as the director of Hancock HIRES, an acronym for Helping Individuals Reach Employment Stability. A line up of speakers talked about the significance of this organization. County Commissioner Mark Gazarek talked about the importance of investing in our local workforce just as we have continually invested in roads, land, sewer, water and other infrastructure. Today is an exciting day in the county and not just the county, but the entire region. Today we are investing in the workforce of the present and the future. If we are going to invest in infrastructure, we must invest in the workforce also. Mayor Lydia Mihalik said, There isn t a mayor in the United States that wouldn t be proud of the level of collaboration that has taken place to date to bring this to fruition. We are the number one

2 micropolitan, two years in a row and working on our third. But the only way we can do that is to work on this pressing need in the community and that s the development of workforce. Duane Jebbett, Rowmark LLC s president and chief executive officer, spoke about the importance of this project as a business. It s really important because I need really good employees. We re growing and it s been a continuous struggle to find good quality employees and I believe this program is going to do that. So, as a company, we are going to support this program fully to make sure it works. It s an innovative program. It s exciting to sit in a board room with these folks because they really do get it. As businesses, we need to support this program, Jebbett said. Dr. Steve Robinson, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Owens Community College talked about the importance of the partnership with Raise the Bar Hancock County. We are delighted to be a part of this partnership. It s important to us to do this kind of partnership work on economic development and workforce development. It s also our mission at Owens Community College to develop the workforce here in Hancock County, he said. We are excited about the synergy as a two year college so closely tied to workforce development. Katherine Kruechauf, Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation president said, The community foundation has made a long term commitment to collective impact as a strategy. We think it s going to yield better results for our entire community when it s used to tackle challenges like ensuring our county and region has the workforce needed to sustain our economy now and into the future. John Urbanski, United Way of Hancock County President & CEO stated, Why did we become a funding partner for Raise the Bar? United Way of Hancock County has evolved from its roots as a fundraising organization to become a critical community convener that mobilizes local partners, including businesses, community leaders, public officials and community residents, to expand opportunities for people to succeed. This project is in perfect alignment to the work we do with financial stability, one of our three building blocks of a good life. The workforce challenges are too big for any single organization to solve; too big even for the nonprofit sector to solve without engaging private enterprise and government as partners. He went on to explain one of the first successes of the Raise the Bar work. In 2015, we piloted a program that allowed prekindergarten access to children without the resources to attend private or public preschool. Shortly after our pilot, the results showed successes and The Community Foundation joined the effort. Our collaboration has expanded the availability of prekindergarten to local youth with financial need in the city and county school districts. As a result of the program, teachers and parents are seeing strides in academic achievement, improved social skills and an overall increase in kindergarten readiness in participating students. Because of this success, this partnership is being extended. Nearly $640,000 will be jointly provided over the next two years by the Community Foundation and United Way to help ensure more students are prepared for kindergarten.

3 Laurie Zydonik, the new director of Raise the Bar Hancock County most recently served as the director of market intelligence for National Business Media, where she was involved in operations and sales, connecting small businesses with suppliers and education through trade shows, publications and online resources. Zydonik has an MBA in Organizational Leadership from the University of Findlay and a BA in Management Information Systems and Communication from Hastings College in Nebraska. She is actively involved in the community and is the 2016 committee chair for the Uncorked & Unplugged event benefitting the Children s Mentoring Connection. Zysonik s job will be to work with education, social services and industry partners to ensure the use of the Collective Impact model and stakeholder engagement processes and tools. She will also work to organize, manage and facilitate projects, from concept through implementation, as identified by the President and Board of Directors that are key to improving the learning system in Hancock County. She will work to strengthen linkages in the community among employers, educators, local government, economic development and other local coalitions. Among other things she will also manage grant and fundraising efforts and leverage opportunities for additional resources. Zydonik said, I m eager to take on the grand challenge of having a prepared, expanding workforce allowing for growth now and in the future to fulfill our economic potential. I look forward to working with the business, education and nonprofit sector to continue the great momentum of this effort. Dan Sheaffer, Hancock HIRES (Helping Individuals Reach Employment Stability) Director addressed his new duties with the Raise the Bar Hancock County organization. Currently in Hancock County there are over 1,000 open positions. Raise the Bar will partner with local organizations that have access to potential employees. One of our early wins is with randrr, a local tech company revolutionizing recruiting for the common good. Randrr and Raise the Bar are partnering to beta test and pioneer disruptive new technology by taking on the oldest form of human capital management and launch a solution that benefits local employers and job candidates. He went on to talk about the Ohio Means Jobs assessing of individuals to ensure that they are work-ready. Raise the Bar will align funding for required training such as Commercial Driver s License training among other innovative approaches to immediately filling open positions in the community. Raise the Bar will strategically market the community to potential employees, regionally and nationally to recruit people to our area, Sheaffer said. After many years as a self-employed businessman, Sheaffer joined the Findlay Hancock County Economic Development team in 2013 as coordinator of the Small Business Resource Center providing entrepreneurial guidance and overall business consulting to startup and existing business owners. During his time with Economic Development, Sheaffer has been deeply involved with the Hancock County Workforce Coalition helping to develop vision and strategy for what would ultimately become Raise the Bar Hancock County. In addition to business retention, expansion and new business attraction with Economic Development, Dan serves on the Hancock County Housing Coalition in an effort to address affordable market-rate housing in the region. He is actively involved with the University of

4 Findlay s Center for Civic Engagement and was just recently appointed to the University s College of Business Advisory Board. Sheaffer is past treasurer and endowment chair of the Findlay Family YMCA. He was a volunteer at; Special Kids Therapy, Rotary International Youth Exchange, special events at the Hancock County Historical Museum and multiple service projects with United Way of Hancock County. Diana Hoover, Hancock County Job and Family Services Director, talked about the partnership between Hancock HIRES and Ohio Means Jobs, which is managed at Job and Family Services. Ohio Means Jobs is the state of Ohio s workforce initiative. We serve the underprivileged, under-employed and people with barriers. The idea that as a community we are working together couldn t be more important to our mission, she said. Findlay City Schools Superintendent Ed Kurt said, Millstream career center has approximately 800 students go through on a daily basis. We serve 15 school districts and we are committed to aligning that career center to the needs of this community not only for education of students but also training adults. Kurt also announced that they are planning an advanced manufacturing class in cooperation with Cooper Tire. They will be training students to be able to walk into great jobs either full or part time. The center has doubled both the medical technology program and their welding program due to placing students at 100% rate right into great jobs. He said, If we don t get it right with kids, we all pay for them, so the bottom line is that the investment we put into preschoolers all the way up to high schoolers, all the way up to adult education to be productive citizens, we all benefit. Jeff Winkle, director of the Findlay Hancock County Public Library, went on to make a special announcement that Sean Covey, son of Steven Covey, with be the featured speaker for the Library s Community Reads, which will feature the book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The event ties into a school initiative called Leader in Me program, a program that focuses on helping students develop leadership skills. The event will take place on Thursday, March 16 at 7 p.m. at the Marathon Center for Performing Arts. This year s book selection is a unique partnership between the library, Raise the Bar and the city and county schools to bring the concept of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to Findlay and Hancock County, Winkle said. Iriti wrapped up the event by praising the work of the many organizations that made this organization come together for this common cause. Raise the Bar Hancock County has applied to become a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization. The Hancock County Commissioners, The Community Foundation, Findlay-Hancock County Economic Development and United Way of Hancock County have each committed $30,000 per year for five years, beginning in 2016, to fund the organization. The City of Findlay is in the process of finalizing their investment. The

5 board of directors of Raise the Bar Hancock County include Tony Iriti, Duane Jebbett, Dave Glass, Kimberly Bash, Mayor Mihalik, Commissioner Gazarek, John Urbanski, Ed Kurt, and Randy Van Dyne. In addition to the partners mentioned, the University of Findlay will be supporting the Raise the Bar Hancock County organization, as well as other coalitions in the community, with data research, identifying necessary and relevant stakeholders, identifying and gathering pertinent information, defining an existing state, envisioning a future state; and establishing actionable goals and objectives for the community s coalition building process. To learn more about Raise the Bar Hancock County, visit About Raise the Bar Hancock County: ### Raise the Bar - Hancock County is a partnership of education, business, social services and community leaders focused on aligning and integrating the Hancock County, Ohio community learning system with economic growth and a high quality of life. In addition, help industry fill the job vacancies of today and in the near term. Raise the Bar Hancock County has applied to become a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization. The City of Findlay, the Hancock County Commissioners, The Community Foundation, Findlay Hancock County Economic Development and United Way of Hancock County have each committed $30,000 per year for five years, beginning in 2016, to fund the Raise the Bar workforce development organization. The mission statement for this organization is to have a prepared, expanding workforce allowing for growth now and in the future to fulfill our economic potential. This mission will be accomplished by the creation of two innovative initiatives: Raise the Bar Hancock County will be a long-term approach to organically grow the workforce of the future requiring the collaboration among education, social services and industry. Hancock HIRES (Helping Individuals Reach Employment Stability) is an approach used to fill the jobs of today in collaboration with Ohio Means Jobs Hancock, training programs and industry.