Career Success Program Kansas City Public Library Submitted to: IMLS Sparks! Ignition

Transcription

1 Career Success Program Kansas City Public Library Submitted to: IMLS Sparks! Ignition iv Kansas Dawn Mackey Tanya Gunkel Layne Aingell Sara DeCamp Gwen Geiger Wolfe Carolyn Whitaker

2 ii Abstract The Kansas City Public Library is seeking a grant to fund its Career Success Program (CSP), an extension of its H&R Block Business Career Center, to meet the needs of its underserved populations. Kansas City, Missouri currently has a significantly high unemployment rate and a substantial percentage of the population lacks access to technology necessary to facilitate job seeking. Additionally, there is a demonstrated need for education regarding current job skills such as completing online applications, generating digital resumes, or conducting online job searches which further exacerbates the cycle of unemployment. If funded, this grant would aid the creation of a one-day, large-scale career preparation outreach initiative on March 10th, 2015, with a focus on technology literacy and accessibility. The CSP would provide job seekers with the unique opportunity to meet with experts in the field to create resumes, search and apply for jobs online, engage in mock interviews, acquire interview-appropriate clothing, and more. This event supports the library s strategic plan of enhancing the use of technology to serve current and future community needs, and tackles community challenges through the development of new partnerships with organizations like Dress for Success, the Kansas City Women s Employment Network, and KCSourceLink. Success will be measured through surveys and with data collected by the Kansas City Job Fair held two weeks following the CSP. Funding this grant is an investment in the future of Kansas City as a model community for unemployment assistance.

3 iii Project Justification The Kansas City Public Library (KCPL) is seeking a grant to fund its Career Success Program (CSP). The grant funds would be used for a one-day, large-scale career preparation outreach initiative, focusing on making technology available to an underserved population. This idea also addresses community challenges through the development of new partnerships. The CSP idea stems from the success of the C.A.R.E. Clinic program. (The National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics, n.d.) The CSP would not be as large as the C.A.R.E. Clinics, but would still be considered large-scale in order to outreach to the public from around an expanded geographical proximity. This idea is also inspired by the Memphis Public Library s Joblinc Career Center (Memphis Public Library Joblinc Career Center, n.d.). Funding in the amount of $23, requested to be used for event space rental, equipment rental, transportation, and other incidentals, such as craft service for volunteers at the event. Kansas City, Missouri (KCMO), with its population of 466,600, (World Population Review, 2014) as of August 2014, has a current unemployment rate of 6% (27,996), which is above the state average (DOL, 2014). The percentage of residents for the KCMO ZIP code with income below the poverty level in 2011 was 35.1% (163,310). The percentage of residents from this ZIP code with income below 50% of the poverty level in 2011 was 21.6% (102,652) (City- Data.com. 2013a). 65% (303,290) of the households with income below the poverty level were headed by females (City-Data.com, 2013b). Only 35.9% (167,976) of the overall population over the age of 25 are high school graduates (BrainyZip, 2012). These figures illustrate that career counseling and assistance could benefit the population. KCPL proposes an innovative technology-based CSP for the Kansas City, Missouri urban core. Our goal is to provide the residents of this area, particularly single mother households, with resources and information for job searching, education in technology related to job searching, assistance for those without access to a computer, GED certification information, and small business information. CSP s target demographic is residents in the Kansas City, Missouri urban core who have little or no access to current career seeking/career improvement technology. By providing residents with technology resources, instruction, coaching, and hands-on training, they will learn skills that could improve job seeking and current employment outcomes. Our intention for CSP is to match volunteers that have specific skill sets with attendees needs. Residents who lack experience in certain areas will work with volunteers to create resumes, online profiles, improve interview skills, and other career enhancing proficiencies. Attendees of the event will have immediate access to professionals and equipment, which will empower them in acquiring new job search and networking skills. CSP also supports the American Library Association s (ALA) view on digital training to low-income persons ( ALA Supports Digital Literacy Training, 2012).

4 iv Event Plan of Action Attendees of CSP may visit ten stations that will be concurrently offering the following activities: 1. Check-in Station: Volunteers from the library check-in attendees and give them selfassessment forms to fill out, which will detail such things as skills, employment history, etc. This will speed up the process for visits to other stations, where volunteers can help attendees better articulate skill sets. 2. Resume Station: Volunteers from Women s Employment Network Kansas City help attendees create resumes based on desired job goals and current skill sets. Hard copies of resumes could be printed out and given to attendees. Completed resumes could also be saved on thumb drives or uploaded to Google Docs for attendees to update in the future. 3. Online Profiles Station: Volunteers from UMKC Career Services assist attendees in setting up accounts, creating profiles, and placing digital versions of resumes in online job seeking sites. 4. Job Locator Station: Volunteers work with attendees, showing them various online venues and library databases for locating available jobs. Here, volunteers also teach jobseeking strategies. 5. Online Application Station: Volunteers from Workforce Development help attendees apply for actual jobs with online applications, working with them step-by-step through the entire process. 6. Interview Techniques and Mock Interviews Station: Volunteers from Community Linc teach interview techniques and lead attendees in mock interviews, offering helpful tips and friendly criticism. 7. Recruitment Station: Local businesses are set up to offer interviews and accept resumes for actual job placements. 8. Dress for Success Station: Donated clothing items of the type that could be worn to interviews will be available for attendees who have the need. Volunteers from Dress for Success offer tips on appropriate attire for job interviews. 9. Small Business Station: Volunteers from KCSourceLink help owners of small businesses to establish online marketing enterprises as well as giving information for available resources to financially help small businesses. 10. Legal Aid Station: Legal Aid of Western Missouri volunteers consult with attendees about employment legal issues such as disability, wage garnishment, social security, immigration information, unemployment benefits, and Equal Employment laws.

5 v Implementation of Project A team of six library staff members will work together to plan, implement, and manage the event: 1. Event Coordinator: Determines and monitors the flow of activities on the day of event; ensures proper equipment, furniture, and supplies are in place for event; ensures equipment functions properly during event; troubleshoots problems with the flow of event on the day it happens; ensures event space is properly cleaned up after event is over; ensures proper return of equipment, furniture, and supplies after event. 2. Marketing Coordinator: Develops and implements broad marketing plan prior to event in order to advertise it to reach a large and diverse audience; outreach to local and state media contacts; cultivates a social networking presence; creates a web presence with one, central location where people can go to find out and ask questions about event; designs and prints printed matter for event, including advertisements/brochures/cards and handouts to give to attendees at event; develops and implements attendee incentives such as raffles and prizes. See Appendix I. 3. Volunteer Outreach Coordinator: Determines the types and numbers of volunteers needed for event; recruits volunteers; outreaches to workforce development centers; forms collaborations with relevant local groups who can volunteer (as groups) for event; is liaison to Team Captains (volunteer leaders, one per station); trains Team Captains prior to event; communicates with volunteers prior to event to ensure they know when and where to be; helps ensure volunteers know what to do on the day of event; answers questions and concerns by Team Captains and volunteers on day of event. 4. Needs and Quality Control Analyst: Articulates justification of project by examining community needs and giving relevant evidence; articulates how the community will benefit from this project. Is present at event to ensure quality control of event activities. 5. Impact Analyst: Articulates the potential impact of the event; creates tools for measuring impact (survey, questionnaires, observation, etc.) in order to create a post-event report on the findings; determines how to measure program success; offers suggestions for future improvements based on findings; offers suggestions for potentially different applications of the program model. 6. Budget Analyst: Creates, justifies, and manages budget; determines how to allocate funds to the various aspects of the event; collects receipts and tracks expenditures; analyzes and offers suggestions on how to save money; researches and locates rental space in which to hold event; attempts to find vendors and donors to donate equipment.

6 vi Project Timeline The CSP hopes to immediately implement its plan, in order to prepare job seekers for the Kansas City Spring Job Fair (KCSJF) to take place at Union Station, Kansas City, on Tuesday, March 24, This will give attendees to the CSP time to learn and practice new skills before the KCSJF. Financial, Personnel and other Resources Needed There are many resources required for the implementation of this project including: Personnel: Paid positions to orchestrate events, media, and volunteer outreach. Location: An event space large enough to accommodate at least 500 attendees, vendors, exhibitors and more. Transportation: This will be required to transport materials to and from the event. Materials and Supplies: This will include on-site printing, event signage, and staffing food and beverages. Technology: Any additional technology supplies or replacements to supplement that, which will be donated by local libraries. Promotional Supplies: This will include branded give-away items that will be used at the event and available for attendees to take home. Resources Contributed by KCPL Staff: The library will provide staff members that will serve as captains for each of the stations during the event. Each staff member will be responsible for their station, with captains chosen for each station based on their individual strengths and interests in areas like resume creation or searching databases for jobs. Technology resources: The library will provide 50 laptops from several locations for resumes, job searches, and application completion. For the resume station, the library will also provide the program WinWay Resume Deluxe to allow job seekers to easily create resumes and to be able to upload these resumes for future use. Evaluation of Program Initially, we will track progress by how many attendees there are to the event, with the goal of hosting at least 500 people. We will also track the effectiveness of the technology stations by asking job seekers to complete an evaluation where they are able to rank their comfort level and familiarity with making a resume, creating an online job application, and searching for jobs both before and after they attended the event. The library will encourage participation in completing the survey with a variety of incentives. All participants that attend the event will be assisted in setting up a Gmail account so that a follow up survey can be sent out 3 months after the event. This brief survey will ask questions regarding the continued use of technology in the job search and ask if participant has become employed since participating in the event. The final tracking of results will be following the Kansas City Spring Job Fair, an event in which our partners already have a process in place to track who completes applications and how they heard of the event. Such statistical information from their past job fairs is already available on their website.

7 vii Project results will be compiled and initially published internally in the form of a special written report to the KCPL Board of Trustees. The report will be reviewed by the Board to determine how and if such a program could be repeated in the future. The Board and Director will work with key library staff on recommendations for improvement and future implementation. An abbreviated version of the report will appear as a special section to the publicly published Annual Report. Additionally, the event coordinator will plan to present this project and its evaluation in a Tool Kit format, at the American Library Association s 2015 conference and the Public Library Association s 2016 conference. Attendance at these conferences will provide the opportunity to disseminate the project model nationally, thereby increasing the scope and range of the project s overall impact. Projected Results The CSP has the potential to affect many people locally, and tackle the community s high unemployment rate by providing career preparation and technology literacy as well as assisting participants with all aspects of the job search. If only two participants find full time minimum wage jobs as a result of the CSP, the cost of the event is justified. The minimum wage in Missouri is $7.50 and this translates into a salary of $15,600 per year. Therefore, the return in investment is high, even figuring on the low side, considering that the grant request of $25,000 is less than the salaries of two full time minimum wages positions. By staging such a large-scale event, the library hopes to reach a wide variety of people that can benefit from access to technology and assistance with career preparation. The hope is that many of the people that participate in the program will find employment or at least have a better idea of the tools available to them in their job search. The potential to highlight the technical innovation of the library will also show the importance and significance of the library in the community. In addition, job seekers can continue to use the services of the H&R Block Business Career Center at the Kansas City Public Library for future needs. At the larger, national level, there is immense potential for this event to be adapted by others in the field. Some considerations that project staff will include in the dissemination Tool Kit are adaptations for both larger metropolitan areas and smaller communities. For example, larger cities may have greater access to partner organizations that can assist with event stations. Alternatively smaller communities may have correlating smaller events but still be able to provide the opportunity to create partnerships in the community and to impact people s lives. This event provides the organization and the structure in which to host similar events in metro areas and smaller cities.

8 viii Budget Personnel Event Coordinator...$2, Media Coordinator...$2, Volunteer Outreach Coordinator...$2, Volunteers... Donation Personnel total...$7, Location Pierson Auditorium UMKC...$ Liability Insurance...$ On-site Technology Capabilities... Complimentary Location total...$1, Transportation Van Rental...$ Transportation total...$ Materials and Supplies On-site Printing Supplies...$1, Event Signage...$1, Staffing Food and Beverage...$2, Technology...$6, Promotional Office Supplies...$ Materials and Supplies Total...$11, Marketing and Incentives Radio Advertising... Donation Newspaper Advertising...$ Printing Costs...$ Incentives and Rewards...$2, Marketing and Incentives Total...$ Project Budget Total...$23, Additional Costs. The collaborative Libraries have also agreed to donate a portion of their staff FTE to participate in the event. Additionally, they plan to provide the majority of technology needed, in addition to free use of the Libraries promotional channels to publicize the event. Any additional coordination, outreach, or support will be available through the Libraries as well, as deemed necessary by the project s coordinators.

9 ix Budget Justification Analysis Personnel. The extent of planning and coordination required to successfully implement this event will involve the employment of three paid positions at a rate of.25fte for a period of three months: Event Coordinator, Media Coordinator, and Volunteer Outreach Coordinator. Location. The event will be located at the University of Missouri, Kansas City s (UMKC) Pierson Auditorium, in the heart of the city. The facility is over 7000 square feet in size and is equipped to handle the number of participants expected for this event. Additionally, they provide free Wi-Fi access and technology capabilities including data-ports. Their rates are substantially less than other similar facilities, with greater amenities and support, making this choice an excellent value. Additional liability insurance is required by all locations to ensure that the event is covered. Transportation. A local cargo van will be rented to facilitate easier transportation of materials to the event location. Materials and Supplies On-site Printing Supplies. Several stations will require the use of a printer. Printer cartridges and paper will be purchased and available for replenishing supplies as needed. (10 bulk packages of each at $50 per package). Event Signage. Branding and signage will be important to this event s success to identify staff, vendors, event tables, way-finding and more. Sufficient signage will ensure that participants will be able to easily navigate the premises and make maximum use of the event. Additionally, we plan to provide printed participant roadmaps as an aid to selfdiscovery, track progress, and show completion of a participant s experience. Staffing Food and Beverage. Volunteers will receive $20 food and beverage vouchers to be used throughout the course of the day at any participating food and beverage vendor on site. The estimated total of volunteers should not exceed 125 individuals. Technology. Most of the technology used during this event will be provided by the Library and volunteer organizations. However, additional technological supplies and devices will likely need to be purchased to supplement what is available, or replace any damaged or missing items including laptops, cords, mouse devices, etc. Promotional Office Supplies. Additional promotional office-type supplies will be purchased for use during this event including pens, notebooks, folders, etc. Marketing and Incentives Radio. UMKC hosts the public radio station KCUR, which will donate radio airspace for a 5-minute interview and seven days of 30-second advertising spots (six days prior and the day of the event).

10 x Newspaper. Advertisements in the Kansas City Star newspaper in both print and online versions will cost approximately $ and run for a total of 16 days in the classified section. Printing Costs. Fliers, handouts and cards will be printed to promote the event within the area (churches, community centers, etc.). Incentives and Rewards. Many incentives and rewards will be donated by local businesses; however, this total reflects additional costs in preparing gift bags, bundles and the purchase of additional incentive giveaways such as tablets, phones, and other useful career-oriented technology. Timeline

11 xi Staff and Consultants Kansas City Public Library: Dawn Mackey, Event coordinator Tanya Gunkel, Outreach coordinator Layne Aingell, Needs analyst and Quality control Sara DeCamp, Impact analyst Gwen GeigerWolfe, Budget analyst Carolyn Whitaker, Marketing coordinator 3 other team captains to be named later Event Day Participants: Women s Employment Network of Kansas City University of Missouri-Kansas City Career Services Workforce Development Center Community Linc Dress for Success KCSourceLink Legal Aid of Western Missouri

12 xii Appendix I Marketing Campaign The purpose of the CSP Committee s Marketing Campaign is to solicit attendance and participation in the community event by the target demographic. In furtherance of this goal, the CSP Committee plans to implement a marketing campaign in accordance with a Three-Phase Plan that was developed to address all concerns. Phase I Phase I is to raise awareness of the event among the target audience. Raising awareness of the event within the target audience can present its challenges due to the limitations of family budgets that could hinder access to the mediums in which the event will be promoted. Therefore, an evolving multichannel marketing strategy will be incorporated through the use of radio, print, social media, and community outreach. First, the marketing initiative through radio will utilize the public radio station KCUR hosted by UMKC, which will donate radio airspace for a five minute interview and seven days of 30 second advertising spots (six days prior and the day of the event). Second, the marketing initiative through the newspaper will consist of advertisements in the Kansas City Star incorporating both their print and online versions. Third, the marketing initiative will incorporate social media to spread awareness of the event. Fourth, community outreach will incorporate fliers, handouts, and cards that will be handed out within the community including at churches, community centers, etc. Fifth, within all the marketing initiatives the marketing campaign will promote the inclusion of incentives and rewards for participating in the event; the incentives and rewards will be donated by local businesses. Phase II Phases II is to promote attendance. Raising awareness for the event is not sufficient to ensure a large turnout by the targeted demographic. The main feature of the CSP will be the availability of resources to help participants with learning and perfecting basic career skills. However, promoting and including family friendly activities will result in the families of the target audience also becoming interested in attending as well. Including family activities will further increase attendance. Included in Phase II will be the promotion of including child and family friendly activities such as face painting and live music at the event. Phase III Phase III is to promote participation. To hold a successful event the CSP committee will need to ensure the participation of local businesses and non-profits within the event. In furtherance of that goal, local news reporters, bloggers, radio hosts, and online news representatives will be invited to provide live coverage of the event. The prospect of free promotion for local business and non-profits though media coverage of the event will entice their participation.

13 iv References ALA Supports Digital Literacy Training (2012). American Libraries Magazine, 43(5/6), 16. BrainyZip, (2012) Social. Retrieved from City-Data.com (2013a) Zip code detailed profile. Retrieved from City-Data.com (2013b). Kansas City, Missouri (MO) poverty rate data: Information about poor and low income residents. Retrieved from: Kansas-City-Missouri.html Memphis Public Library Joblinc Career Center. (n.d.) Retrieved from The National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics. (n.d.) Retrieved from United States Department of Labor (DOL), (2014). Bureau of Labor Statistics: Economy at a glance. Retrieved from World Population Review, (2014). Retrieved from