Tim Heider, Clackamas County Public Affairs Coordinator, 503-742-5911

06-16-2010

For the fifth year in a row, Community Solutions for Clackamas County has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to train local veterans and help them attain jobs. The $500,000 grant represents the maximum award amount for the program funded through the Labor Department.

Community Solutions, through its Hire Oregon Veterans program, serves veterans from Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington, Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties. The grant was one of 22 announced Tuesday totaling $9 million. The training program funded by the Labor Department's Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS) is intended to equip veterans with skills to compete in the modern workforce. The program is focused on recently separated veterans with the goal of steering nearly two-thirds of the program participants into renewable electric power, solar power, wind power, and energy efficiency assessment industries. The program will also place participants into other labor-demand occupations. 

Find more about the program by clicking http://www.dol.gov/vets/

Through this program, an estimated 4,000 veterans will receive skills assessments, job counseling, labor market information and on-the-job training. The grants were awarded on a competitive basis to state and local workforce investment boards, local public agencies, non-profit organizations including faith-based and community organizations.

"These funds are especially timely given the needs of our returning veterans especially the 41^st Brigade and other National Guard and Reserve Units who are experiencing a 50 percent unemployment rate. Compounding the problem, Oregon has the 12^th highest veteran population yet has no military bases. This causes  difficulties when coordinating transition assistance for recently separated veterans.  Bases provide support infrastructure. In Oregon those services are decentralized and that can create barriers between returning veterans who need to access services and providers who serve them, " said Maureen Thompson, director of Community Solutions for Clackamas County and the Hire Oregon Veterans program.

"We can use these funds for training or to reimburse our local employers for 50 percent of a veteran’s wages. This is important because more employers are beginning to realize the value of on-the-job training as a means of accessing the untapped labor pool in our veteran population," she said.