Local Initiatives | Resources | Social Security Administration | Wiregrass Alliance

Local Initiatives

Our workforce development staff member, workforce development committee, and education committee, work closely with area school systems, post-secondary education institutions, service agencies, state agencies, and business and industry, in order to identify community needs, and coordinate effective solutions, tailored to locally identified problems.

Work Keys

WORK-KEYS is a product of American College Testing (ACT). It is a national system for teaching and assessing workplace skills. Information about the program can be found at the ACT web site: www.act.org/workkeys

For more information about the local WORK-KEYS program, contact Janet Ormond at Wallace Community College at (334) 983-3521 ext. 245 or by email at jormond@wallace.edu

Job Shadowing Activities

Groundhog Job Shadow Day is an annual nationwide effort to introduce students to the world of work. The Boys and Girls Club organizes and conducts this activity locally. For more information contact Ms. Kellie Folger at (334) 793-5650. General information, a start-up guide, and an instructional tutorial are available at the website www.jobshadow.org

Farley Nuclear Plant conducts annual job shadow events independent of Groundhog Job Shadow Day. The point of contact for Job Shadow activities at Farley is Ms. Beth Thomas at (334) 794-6431, ext 6184.

The Ms. Foundation has sponsored "Take our daughters to work day" for nine years. Locally, Girls Inc. has opted to expand the event to include young men, and called the event "Take our youth to work day". The Ms. Foundation website provides information on this activity. http://www.takeourdaughterstowork.org

You can learn more about Girls Inc. and find local contact information at: http://www.girls-inc.org/ic/page.php?id=7_alabama

Counselor In-Service

An annual event, which is provided for area school counselors, is the "Counselor-In-Service" program. The program is conducted at the Dothan campus of Wallace Community College. The program is designed to assist counselors in showing their students the relevancy between local post-secondary school and training opportunities, community needs, and available career paths. For more information, contact Debi Breedlove, of Wallace Community College, at (334) 983-3521, ext. 2224 or by email at dbreedlove@wallace.edu

Adopt-A-School

The Adopt-A-School program is extremely helpful in providing local support to our school systems. Business and industry are encouraged to actively participate at whatever level they are comfortable. The programs and resources, which these relationships provide, are invaluable to the community. To inquire about Adopt-A-School participation contact Linda Kelley, Director-Community Development, at lkelley@dothan.com

Job Corps

Job Corps is a public-private partnership administered by the Department of Labor. The program serves at-risk youth between the ages of 16 and 24. There are two Job Corps training centers in Alabama. More information may be obtained locally by contacting the Dothan Area Career Center (334) 792-2121, or Jackson-Pierce Job Corps Admissions and Career Services (334) 678-1438. The web site for Job Corps is: http://jobcorps.doleta.gov