Have you lost your job due to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Do you need a new job, but do not know where to start?
A local face is now in the WorkOne office at the Brown County Career Resource Center to help answer questions like that.
Sandra Pool was hired as the WorkOne workforce training coordinator in November.
WorkOne provides free assistance to job seekers and employers, like employment counseling, veterans services, services for people with disabilities, and computer classes. The office also can help people assess their current skills and improve them, and connect people to job-finding services, like Indiana Career Connect.
In addition, Pool can work with local businesses that are having trouble finding qualified candidates. If they need help advertising an open job, or have a candidate in mind but that person needs some resume help or training, she can help with that.
Pool will be at the CRC, on East Main Street in Nashville, full-time, four days a week until 5:30 p.m. The CRC is closed on Fridays.
Pool was born and raised in the Helmsburg area and has lived here all her life. She and her husband have raised three children here. Before taking this role, she was a bus driver for 22 years for Brown County Schools.
“Helping people, that’s my goal. If I can help one person, it’s great, and the more the merrier at that point,” she said.
“I think there are a lot of great services through WorkOne that I’m still discovering.”
Having a local person in this role will hopefully bring more people in to get help, CRC Director Christy Wrightsman said.
“My hope as the CRC director is that people will begin to recognize all of the services CRC and WorkOne together provide; that they will be coming through our doors; that we will have lots of appointments to meet with individuals and help secure those jobs and trainings and that better quality of life,” she said.
WorkOne has had an office in Nashville for around 25 years. It moved to the CRC around 12 years ago, which made the building a “one-stop shop” for adult education, job search services and job training programs, said WorkOne workforce training coordinator Richard Rampley.
As staff was reduced over the years, the Nashville WorkOne office had one person working there. When that employee retired, it was difficult to find someone who was willing to work full-time in Brown County or split their time between here and Bloomington, he said.
The WorkOne services had been available at the CRC two days a week on limited hours. Then, the demand for WorkOne services increased over the last three years, so now, the office is going to be open full-time, Rampley said.
This WorkOne office is a part of the Region 8 South Central Indiana Workforce Economic Growth region. “This region focuses on, how do we provide services in each county? It’s important that no matter what the size of the county that services be available,” Rampley said.
Rampley came over to serve in this WorkOne office after the last person retired. He has been here since last June and has helped train Pool.
From July to December 2020, Rampley and the CRC sent 15 people into various programs, like commercial driver’s license truck driving, certified clinical medical assistant and certified nursing assistant trainings.
Some of that training, such as for nursing, is offered in Nashville. For others, WorkOne can work to get people into programs offered in other counties.
Not every new job will require a new degree, Rampley pointed out.
“It doesn’t mean you should go to school for two years and get an associate’s degree or four years and get a bachelor’s degree. There’s a lot of very skilled training that takes place in what we call short-term training, from three weeks to 15 weeks,” Rampley said.
WorkOne can also work with youth, ages 16 to 24, who are looking to get a job.
WorkOne has funding through the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act to help cover the cost of trainings. It also received funding last year from the state’s Next Level Jobs program, but all of that funding ended Dec. 30.
“When companies close or businesses quit, then we’re able to work with those individuals as dislocated workers, help them move into their next job. Sometimes, it involves training. Sometimes, it involves a job search,” Rampley said.
If funding is not available through Next Level Jobs or WIOA, that’s where the CRC can step in to help locals get scholarships.
WorkOne can also help people file unemployment claims, using the computer lab at the CRC.
“We can try to help them move to the next big step, which is get a job, get their high school equivalency, get training, whatever might be important to them,” Rampley said.
“A lot of this is about how you look at the resources that are available. How do you find ways to work together to assist individuals to upgrade their skills and be more competitive in the labor market?”
A partnership exists between WorkOne and adult education in almost each of the Region 8 counties, with the exception of Owen County.
“It makes for a good connection. Just because you have a high school diploma, you may want to brush up on your skills depending on the job you want to go into. Or a lot of times, people don’t have high school diplomas. That’s a barrier to employment,” he said.
People without high school diplomas or who have lost their jobs to COVID-19 can find help at WorkOne.
“Our end result for all of us is we want those individuals to get work that helps them get more pay,” Rampley said.
“That’s what our focus is.”
Contact WorkOne
Address: In the Brown County Career Resource Center, 246 E. Main St., Nashville
Hours: Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sandra Pool, the WorkOne workforce coordinator, works until 5:30 p.m.
Phone: 812-988-5880
