2. Workforce Solution
3. Worker Connection Program
4. Worker Connection and Circles Green Bay Collaborate to Assist Individuals

Worker Connection and Circles Green Bay Collaborate to Assist Individuals

A cornerstone of the Worker Connection program is collaboration with established organizations and programs that have a history helping individuals find success in local communities. One such program, Circles Green Bay, has helped area individuals move out of poverty since 2017. The program operates at the Green Bay Community Church.

Circles Green Bay is part of Circles USA, a national initiative that works to build relationships across income lines to help families move out of poverty. Building social capital is often a missing link between short-term relief and long-term stability, so Circles matches participants with two volunteers who earn middle-to-upper incomes. The volunteers help participants identify and use their unique gifts and skills to reach personal and financial goals.

The Worker Connection program helps Circles Green Bay advance its work with additional layers of support to keep participants motivated, engaged, and interested.

As an example, a spring 2022 training hosted through Worker Connection program introduced Circles Green Bay volunteers to resources offered by regional workforce partners such as the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) and Bay Area Workforce Development Inc. Topics discussed include:

• Strategies to create a positive job seeker profile and develop career pathways.
• Conditions of work and research on in-demands jobs in the Green Bay area.
• Online website, O*NET, which helps volunteers research and discuss transferable skills, wages and more with participants.
• Worker Connection program-specific services and resources

Circles Green Bay volunteer Gail Nohr said she found training "very informative and right on point."

Worker Connection-supported Career Navigators work with several individuals from the Circles Green Bay program on a biweekly basis. One individual is a young, single mother interested in going into the healthcare or human services field. The Worker Connection program provides navigation resources to meet her immediate needs and assists her in accessing the WIOA Youth program to meet her educational goals.

Circles Green Bay Coach Matthew Hastreiter spoke highly of the collaborative relationship supported through Worker Connection.

"People are looking at the possibility that their futures can hold in a new light," he said. "This supplemental experience, collaborating with the work we do in our own program, has enhanced the lives, outlook, and mindset of the people its mission seeks to serve. It is a gift to have more than one voice working for good in a person's life, and likewise, a gift to have agencies collaborating for the common goal of improving the lives of the people they serve by helping those clients, guests or participants help themselves. The Career Navigator program does just that, and it has a high probability to take any program whose mission it is to work with people who are looking to improve their professional lives to a new, growing place."

Learn more about the Worker Connection Program

The Worker Connection program is made available by a grant from the American Rescue Plan Act Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds

DWD is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. If you have a disability and need assistance with this information, please dial 7-1-1 for Wisconsin Relay Service. Please contact the Division of Employment and Training at 888-258-9966 and press 6 to request information in an alternate format, including translated to another language.