The beginnings of our partnership with the Milwaukee County Federated Library System (MCFLS), which includes all the libraries in Milwaukee County, go back to 2015. The Goodwill Center for Work & Training – Southwest Campus opened that year, which included a Workforce Connection Center (WCC) location. As part of the initial outreach to the surrounding communities, the Goodwill WCC conducted a number of activities to help raise awareness of the services offered. One of the first contacts made was with the Milwaukee Public Library.
Our team was able to meet with members of the library staff from the three closest surrounding libraries – Greendale, Greenfield and Milwaukee Public Library’s Zablocki Branch. Our goal was simple; meet their team, listen to what kinds of job seeker services they offer and find out how we could help.
We began small, dropping off flyers for recruitment events and slowly developing relationships with each branch. As these relationships grew, we listened to the needs of the libraries when it came to workforce development services. We heard from them that library staff were consistently asked for help with resumes as part of their everyday work. Knowing that we offered resume workshops that could be valuable for many patrons who requested help, and offer the library staff a chance to direct those inquiries to someone with expertise in this area, our team began to plan for outreach activities centered around this topic.
Our Workforce Connection Center staff began to offer our resume writing workshops onsite at these south side libraries. They were met with great enthusiasm and were well-attended. We found that most attendees schedule a one-on-one appointment at one of our Workforce Connection Centers after the workshop to further utilize Goodwill’s services for job seekers. We added our Interview Skills Workshop to the mix as well as customizing our resume writing workshop for the audience.
“At the Greenfield Library, we often have patrons asking for help with their resumes and job searches. Goodwill Workforce Connection Center has filled that need by offering resume and job search workshops. They bring their expertise to the library and that has allowed the library to provide an important service to our patrons," says Michelle Scaife, Business Manager for the Greenfield Public Library.
In only 2 ½ years, over 200 people have attended a Workforce Connection Center workshop onsite at a Milwaukee Public Library location. The locations have grown from the original three to occasionally include Franklin, Hales Corners and Oak Creek.
Further Partnership Expansion with the Milwaukee Public Library
In 2017, the partnership expanded between Goodwill and the Milwaukee Public Library (MPL), which consists of the 13 library branches in the City of Milwaukee. Goodwill and MPL entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to mutually promote and connect people to workforce development resources provided by each organization and through joint events. This has included Goodwill’s participation in the MPL Annual Job Expo at the Central Library with a collaborative Goodwill Team including Workforce Connection Center, TalentBridge and HR Retail representatives; training and linkages to the Workforce Connection Center Career Portal and website resources; MPL dissemination of monthly WCC recruitment events; and Goodwill sponsored interview events held at both the Central and Martin Luther King Libraries.
The 2019 MPL Job Expo reported over 200 job seekers applying to an average of 3.2 jobs, and the recent Goodwill event at the Martin Luther King Library engaged 60 job seekers.
Additionally, in June of this year, a WCC Consultant is onsite one afternoon a week at the Central Library as a Community Access Point to provide personal, customized workforce development services and refer job seekers to any of the Workforce Connection Center locations. This new service enhances our support to our existing Community Access Points at the Sojourner Family Peace Center and The Guest House, providing a collaboration of community services in the downtown Milwaukee area.
Being able to meet the unique needs of the people we serve is a strength of Goodwill and partnering with the Milwaukee Public Library has given us a chance to provide onsite services and increase our service footprint. “Working with the library provides us with another important venue to connect with the community, providing both direct workforce development services as well as referrals to our other Workforce Connection Centers and Goodwill program services,” says Rosann Lewis, Area Manager for the Workforce Connection Centers. “I believe Goodwill is able to have a deeper impact in the community through these valuable partnerships,” says Lewis.
Our relationship with the libraries is strong and we will continue to embrace the opportunity to serve the community through this important partnership. “Our strong partnership with Goodwill allows the Milwaukee Public Library to expand on our current workforce development initiatives,” says Hermoine Bell-Henderson, Coordinator of the Business, Technology, and Periodicals Department for the Milwaukee Public Library. “MPL is fortunate to bring in and connect with new library users and job seekers more frequently through on-going recruitment events in collaboration with Goodwill. The expertise of their team and willingness to try something new to benefit and engage job seekers is beneficial to our library system. Together we meet the needs of the community and in turn we all contribute to building a strong Milwaukee,” says Bell-Henderson.
For more information about our services for job seekers in Wisconsin, and our partnership with the Libraries in the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County, please contact Rosann Lewis, Area Manager for the Workforce Connection Centers, and (414) 847-4778 or rosann.lewis@goodwillsew.com.
For more information on the Milwaukee Public Library, please visit on the sites below.
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