It's been a busy month...

It has been a busy month for EmpowerNet and lots of exciting things are on the horizon.

First there was the San Francisco OEWD annual conference where hundreds of service providers met at the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway. We made lots of valuable new contacts and renewed some old acquaintances. The 2 day conference confirmed for us that there is a still a great need in the city of San Francisco for workforce development training.

Then we were off to San Diego for the Annual California Workforce Association conference at the luxurious Marriott Marquis and Marina convention center. The convention theme was “Connected at the roots”. One major takeaway that I got was that there is a major need in workforce development to focus on ‘Careers’ rather than just jobs. We had the privilege of co-presenting a breakout session on Digital Literacy and the impact that digital literacy has in empowering men and women throughout California to find those career opportunities. Several attendees are now eager to start new Digital Literacy programs in their cities after getting motivation at the conference.

Next it was a trip to Monterey to meet with organizations from the Monterey area that were granted funds through the federal BTOP (Broadband Technology Opportunities Program). They have many exciting events planned for the spring including a Computer Help day on May 14th in Salinas. Residents will be invited to get their computers fixed at no charge. We also met with representatives from the Watsonville WIB of Santa Cruz County. We hope to develop these new relationships and assist the WIB with empowering the Santa Cruz County area with new and exciting workforce training.

Today we are off to a “Get Connected” event in Oakland where the focus is getting low-income residents internet access. Non-Profit Organizations throughout Oakland are working together to promote this effort. The goal for California is to get 80% of Californians internet access by the year 2015.

Next week we are off to Los Angeles to meet with EmpowerNet Training partners who are involved with project planning to start A+ training programs this summer.

See you at the next event…