Striving to keep unemployment down in the Golden Triangle and working to make area employees better at their jobs — it”s all in a day”s work for employees at the WIN Job Center on North Frontage Road, alongside Highway 82 in Lowndes County.
Since July 2008, the Golden Triangle WIN Job Center has worked with nearly 30,000 people in Lowndes, Oktibbeha and Clay counties who are seeking employment or continuing job force education, according to WIN Director Billy Hamilton.
And although unemployment has been on the rise across the country during the past several months, traffic at the center has not seen a sharp increase.
“Last year, Sara Lee had a huge impact on us and really shot traffic through the roof,” said Hamilton, noting the center”s fiscal and data-tracking years begin each July. “We”ve seen a slight increase in traffic this year, but it hasn”t been much higher than it was last year.
“But I am definitely looking for those numbers to increase as we move along,” Hamilton added. “It seems that”s the trend all over the country, and I”m sure it will affect us at some point, too.”
The Golden Triangle WIN Job Center, a branch of the statewide Workforce Investment Network, has been open since October 2008. The center is a consolidation of three centers previously open in each county in the Golden Triangle.
“We are actually seeing about as many people now as we did at all three of the old centers,” Hamilton said. “We have about 35 employees here, and almost all of them were brought here from the old centers when we consolidated.”
The new center offers a plethora of free job-seeking and continuing education programs for anyone in the area, and has helped thousands of unemployed residents obtain jobs during the past several months.
“For unemployed workers, we offer job referrals, computer usage classes and resume preparation,” Hamilton explained. “We also offer free computer, phone, fax and copy usage.
“We have a job corps program for people age 16-24 that trains younger workers to excel in a particular field,” Hamilton added. “We also work with EMCC to offer GED and ACT test prep classes.”
For those who have recently lost jobs, WIN also aids in filing for unemployment benefits and searching for job openings. If a company, like the former Sara Lee plant in West Point, conducts a mass layoff, WIN employees also will travel to a job site to aid former employees in filing for unemployment.
The job center”s Web site, www.win.com, also allows job seekers to browse a list of available jobs posted by local companies.
While many of the job center”s offerings are aimed at those seeking employment, WIN also offers several programs for those looking to become more efficient at their current jobs, Hamilton added.
“We work with companies to offer on-the-job training for both new and seasoned employees who are looking to better their performance at their jobs,” Hamilton said. “A lot of people also come in to take our computer training classes to become more computer literate.
“Everyone wants to better themselves, and we just provide many programs to help people in doing that,” Hamilton added.
Even though the center”s list of programs may seem lengthy, WIN officials are planning to expand the organization”s offerings soon.
“We are getting ready to launch programs focused on entrepreneurship, since a lot of people now are shifting toward owning their own businesses and working for themselves,” said Hamilton. “We also help people to develop money management and other practical, real-world skills that will help them in their everyday lives.
“Everything we do is aimed at helping people to train and better themselves so they can either enter or re-enter the job force or become better at the jobs they already have,” Hamilton added.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
