 There we go. Good morning and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I am your host, Prista Porter, here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Encompass Live is the commission's weekly webinar series where we cover a variety of topics that may be of interest to libraries. We broadcast the show live every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. Central Time. But if you're unable to join us on Wednesdays, that's fine. We do record the show as we are doing today. And it is then posted to our website for you to watch at your convenience. And I'll show you at the end of today's show where you can access our recordings. Both the live show and the recordings are free and open to anyone to watch. So please do share with your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, anyone you think might be interested in any of the topics we have on the show. Here at the Nebraska Library Commission, we are the state agency for libraries, and that is for all types of libraries. So you will find shows on Encompass Live and in our archives that could be for any type of library. Public, academic, K-12 schools, corrections, museums, archives, et cetera, et cetera, anything and everything. Really, our only criteria is that it's something to do with libraries, something cool that libraries are doing, some resources or services we think that libraries could benefit from. That's all just library focused in general. We sometimes have Nebraska Library Commission staff that come on and do presentations about services and programs we offer through the commission. But we also bring in guest speakers, and that's what we have this morning. This morning with us is Josh Hansen. Good morning, Josh. Good morning, Krista. Thank you for having me. Yeah, and he is from our Nebraska's Department of Labor, and he's going to talk to us about a great partnership that he's developing in the midst of. Hopefully, there will be more of it with libraries with workforce development. So I'm just going to hand it over to you, Josh, to take a little talk about it. Appreciate it. Thank you, Krista, and good morning, everyone. As Krista mentioned, my name is Josh Hansen. I'm the Greater Nebraska One Stop Operator with the Nebraska Department of Labor Division of Reemployment Services. And I'm here today just to explain some of the employment and training programs that we do offer through the Division of Reemployment Services and how educating our local libraries on the different programs that we offer is going to strengthen our accessibility for those job seekers and employers in rural Nebraska to gain access to our re-employment coordinators. And we understand patrons utilize the libraries pretty frequently for their employment and training needs. So what we want to do is just be able to provide your staff with the information and education on our programs so that we can get connected with those patrons that are seeking those services and whether that be getting them into our office for that initial eligibility determination on programs, initial report building, or connecting them with our staff on a virtual basis. So the first thing I'm going to go over is the Greater Nebraska Workforce Development Area. So Nebraska is made up of three local workforce development areas. There's Greater Lincoln, Greater Omaha, and then there's Greater Nebraska. So Greater Lincoln serves Lancaster and Saunders Counties, where Greater Omaha serves Douglas, Sarpey, and Washington Counties. And now Greater Nebraska, which I represent, serves the remaining 88 counties in the state of Nebraska. And as you can see there on that map, it shows the boundaries of the Greater Nebraska. So everything in that kind of light blue area is all areas that we serve. And the two star buildings or the two stars that we see on Grand Island of Beatrice are our actual comprehensive American job centers. And then the rest of the locations that we have there are affiliate one stop centers throughout the city of Nebraska. This is also referred as a local area, but the Greater Nebraska Workforce Development Area consists of those two comprehensive American job centers and there are 12 career centers throughout the state. That's a lot of space for you to cover. You're not all by yourself, I'll hope. So we have a great field team that's built up and executes different programs throughout the state. They're the ones that really administer these programs and do the marketing, the outreach, promoting our services, and trying to target individuals that are in most need of our employment and training programs that we have. But as you can see, we are spread out. There's in some locations, especially in the rural parts such as mid plains and the Panhandle, the nearest office for a participant may be a two hour drive one way. So this is why we want to educate the libraries. I think there was 40 some libraries in the Panhandle loan compared to our two local offices. So those people that have those transportation barriers that are unable to access or physically access our office, we want to be able to still provide accessibility through virtual services. And that's where the library partnership comes in and educating staff. So that you're aware of the programs that we provide. So as you hear it in those libraries, as patients are coming in, then we can get them connected with our staff so that we're still providing the services that they need. So the Department of Labor Division of Reemployment Services, we actually implement Title I and Title III. It looks like Dash has frozen up here. Oh, he's lost his grip. Go ahead and pick it up again from the slide. Thank you, Chris. And I apologize again, everyone, tech issues. But as I was saying, within the Greater Nebraska Workforce Development Area, we are the Division of Reemployment Services. And what we do within that division is provide assistance to employers, job seekers, and training providers across the state. Some of the programs that our field staff operates within this division are the Jobs for Veterans State Grant, the Wagner-Pizer Job Seeker, Nebraska Reemployment Services Program, Trade Adjustment Assistance, and the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act with the Adult Dislocated Worker Program and then in school and out of school youth as well too. Some of the Reemployment Services responsibility are also providing staff and program support to field operation units and virtual service units, operating Nebraska's Public Online Labor Exchange, any works, so that we are expanding access and providing services to employers, job seekers, and program participants. Now the services available at each one-stop center are designed to meet the requirements of our Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. There are three tiers of services that we provide. The core services, intensive services, and training services. So within our core services, that's going to include self-access and informational services that will be available within our resource rooms or online, which include self-access, assessment, and career planning tools, labor market information, job listings, electronic resume banks, and then information about education and training providers. Some of our intensive services, they're a little similar to those core services, but just more specialized, and those include comprehensive skills assessment, individualized counseling and career planning, case management, career workshops, and then intensive follow-up services once successful career placement has been achieved. Training services, there are participants who will be eligible to receive training services if they're not eligible for intensive services, and then they've demonstrated or we have assessed that there is a need for them to receive these training services in order to retain a job and upgrade their skills. Some of those training services offered within our offices could include basic skills training, which include GED preparation, occupational skills training, on-the-job training, or customized training. All right, so our first program I'm going to touch base on that we have is our Jobs for Veterans State Grant. So the Nebraska Department of Labor is dedicated to providing employment services to all veterans. Veterans and eligible spouses receive access and priority of service to the full range of public employment and training services, which include our career assessment and counseling, assistance with resumes, cover letters, and interviewing skills, supportive services, referrals, job placement assistance, and referrals to employers, information on careers training, education, and financial aid resources, job search workshops, labor market information, and then all of our resource rooms also have access to computer and internet so that if we have individuals that are coming into our office, we can assist them one-on-one with navigator or any works website, navigating other job banks, and then actually physically helping them with filling out job applications. And a lot of services that we provide on the veteran side is making sure that we obtain the required documentation so that we can assist them with getting veterans' preference for those specific employers' industries that are hiring based off of that model. So our veteran re-employment coordinators within all of our offices, they're actually military veterans themselves. And they also assist employers and employer associations to promote veteran hiring initiatives. They educate employers on the benefits of hiring veterans and help them attract, hire, and retain a veteran workforce. So not only does our JVSG staff work with those veteran job seekers, but they also work with employers to assist these veterans in identifying employers that are actively seeking that target population to fill and retain their workforce. So it assists them with really getting into those veteran-friendly employers throughout the state. And then our largest program is our Wagner-Pizzer services. So Wagner-Pizzer job-seeker services include job search assistants, such as navigating the any works labor exchange system, referrals to open positions and placement assistants, including resume assistants, interview preparation, workshops, and referrals to additional supportive service and training programs. In addition to this program, as you can see with the priority of service that I have listed, this program does provide specialized attention and services to individuals that are veterans, those that have disabilities, migrant and seasonal farm workers, justice-involved individuals, youth, minorities, and older workers. Then our Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. So this is more of the career planning and intensive services that I had mentioned before during the three-tier of services that we offer through the Department of Labor. Some of the WIOA services that we provide, both on the adult, dislocated worker and youth program, are career planning and counseling, job search assistants, short-term or long-term training programs that are going to lead individuals in receiving an industry-recognized credential that's going to assist them in obtaining a job in a high-demand, high-skilled workforce where they're going to be able to make that either self or family-sustaining wages with the potential to be promoted within and with an industry that's going to have a strong projected growth within the labor market. Some of the short-term programs could last up to six months and just leading them into a credential that's going to make them more marketable or a specific credential that we are seeing employers looking for so that we can promote that. A long-term training program would be anything over six months, so a lot of times leading up to those associates' degrees in a specific high-demand industry. Then we have a work-based training, a work-based learning program, and then our supportive services as well, too. So WIOA is actually one of our only programs that we actually can provide funding to the participant or the employer. So we can assist them with paying for that tuition to get those industry-recognized credentials, assisting them with supportive services such as uniforms, tools, books that they're going to need to be successful in that training or to be successful in the new career after placement, before or after placement. And then WIOA's main purpose is to streamline and strengthen the strategic roles of our workforce development boards. We improve services to employers and promote those work-based trainings and provide access to high-quality training. So WIOA really helps those job seekers acquire those industry-recognized credentials for these in-demand jobs that we have in Nebraska. All right, so here we have our WIOA eligibility. So for our adult program, individuals just must be 18 years or older and have a show or need for a career or training services. Now, we do provide those priority of services for those individuals who have those barriers to employment. So anybody that is basic skills deficient, anybody who is long-term unemployed, underemployed individuals that have those disabilities or individuals who have been receiving public assistance, those are our really targeted populations that we're trying to serve and reserving our funding first because they're the ones that are in the most need of developing these skills so that we can't help them get into a long-term career and help them retaining these positions. For our dislocated worker program, the qualification is anybody who lost a job due to no fault of their own, maybe a transitioning service member, someone who has successfully fulfilled their active duty requirements through the armed forces and are transitioning out into the civilian world, qualified military spouses, so an individual whose husband or wife had gotten out of the armed forces and they are relocating back to another state, they could be considered a dislocated worker at that point. A self-employed individual who is experiencing a loss of income, so that's something we've seen a lot during COVID-19, obviously a lot of entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals had experienced an extreme loss of income, so they would qualify as a dislocated worker program through WIOA and then our displaced homemakers as well too. For our youth, anybody who is 14 to 21 years old and is currently enrolled in school are going to meet the definition and eligibility for our WIOA in-school youth program. They do have to show that they are low income and they have to experience at least one barrier to employment and that may be homelessness, basic skills deficient, receiving that public assistance, justice-involved youth. There's a couple of different sorts of barriers that we have out there for that eligibility but they have to meet the initial of low income and then at least have one of those barriers to employment for eligibility. For our in-school youth, for our out-of-school youth, they have to be 16 to 24 years of age and not currently enrolled in school. They also are going to have to meet that low income criteria and experience one of those barriers that I've mentioned before. All right, so then we have our SNAP Next Step and ENT. So the SNAP Next Step and ENT program assists SNAP participants in achieving their employment goals and reaching self-sufficiency. The SNAP Next Step and ENT program provides assistance navigating employment changes and prepares the participant for how they may affect their economic assistance benefits. So the program does include a partnership between our Department of Health and Human Services and the Nebraska Department of Labor. SNAP Next Step and ENT helps SNAP participants that are unemployed or underemployed work towards being self-sufficient by assisting in search for more suitable employment, providing support to better provide for their families, and decreasing or eliminating the individual's need for public assistance. Some of the assistance that the SNAP Next Step ENT services includes assistance with job search, pairing for those interviews, updating resumes, financial assistance for those occupational skills training, work experience, and on-the-job training opportunities, tuition assistance within the short-term training program. And then they provide that case management services, much like our WIOA case managers provide as well too. So they'll be there and assisting with checking in on the progress of a client's employment plan, following up after they start a new job and their employment situation is going to be a good fit for them and their family, and then they assist with reviewing those SNAP benefits and discuss different budgets to ensure that their understanding how some of those changes in employment are going to affect those benefits so that we're not leading them into what we call a benefit cliff. So anytime we have an individual come into our office or referred to a SNAP Next Step through DHHS, we're also going to refer them to our WIOA program as well too. They're going to qualify, and they're definitely going to be a priority of service that we want to serve. So what we'll do is work within our case managers to do a co-enrollment into both of our programs so that a participant's going to have access to two case managers and two separate funding streams to assist them with their training, career needs, or supportive services that they're going to need, which will help us in helping them eliminate their barriers to employment and really help focus on getting them into those full-time careers. But again, just like WIOA, clients are offered those supportive services as needed to be successful by a case-by-case basis. So this is an opportunity if they're co-enrolled in WIOA and SNAP Next Step, that we can really leverage our funding resources so that we can assist them with gas to get to and from school or work until they get that first paycheck. We can help them out with getting work, clothing, uniforms, interview attire that they need to be successful help them out with those books and tools that they're going to require to complete their training or before they accept that next career. And then SNAP Next Step, ENT eligibility so the workforce coordinators or third-party partners with potential eligibility clients that are received through referrals as well as outreach potential clients are contacted to discuss the program and determine if they are interested in participating. If they're receiving SNAP benefits, they do not have to participate in SNAP Next Step, ENT and they do not have to participate in WIOA, but it is beneficial for them to at least sit down with those career planners to discuss the benefits of working with them in obtaining their training and career needs. If they're interested in meeting the schedule with the client regarding their employment goals, barriers and how Next Step, ENT may assist them in achieving their goals. After co-enrolling with Next Step, ENT, the client is going to be referred and co-enrolled with our WIOA program through the Department of Labor again so that we're providing additional support through case management and additional financial resources for these individuals. And as I mentioned, SNAP Next Step, ENT is a voluntary program and participants can start or drop out at any time if they wish. But if they do not successfully complete the program and they do want to drop out, there's no guarantee that that funding through WIOA or SNAP is going to be available in the future with them. So that's the time when we do our outreach with SNAP and WIOA we really want to do that co-marketing co-outreach and co-report building with our clients so they understand the benefits and they can adhere to our program requirements so that we can successfully assist them with providing financial resources or providing those career counseling so that they can get those skills and employment assistance they need to get off the programs and to get back into employment full-time. And then Trade Services is going to be an extra. Our Trade Adjustment Assistance and Reauthorization Act helps out with training, income support, job search assistance, relocation assistance, and then Reemployment Trade Adjustment Assistance for older workers including health coverage tax credit. So the Trade Adjustment Assistance Reauthorization Act provides services for those who have lost their employment due to foreign trade. This may include all or some of the company's operations moving overseas or the sourcing of products or services from other countries. Eligibility for the trade program is very specific and requires approval of a trade petition. If eligible for TAA participants may qualify for up to 130 weeks of full or part-time training resulting in an industry-recognized credential. During that time the trade program will cover tuition fees and books and then additional training options may include employer-based training such as upon-the-job training, customized training and then registered apprenticeships as well. Income support is available for workers who are enrolled in a full-time trade approved training and then trade does reimburse a portion of allowable expenses incurred during a participant's job search which could include mileage reimbursement or lodging. Should an individual that's enrolled in our trade program find a job outside of their commuting area then we can also assist with that relocation expenses. Workers that are 55 or older may even qualify for wage subsidy if re-employed at a reduced salary from their trade affected position and then if trade affected they may also qualify for income tax credits related to the cost of maintaining their health coverage. As I mentioned for trade eligibility it is limited to those affected by a layoff that has been certified as trade eligible so affected workers apply for benefits and services through their actual local job centers and what they would need to do is bring their trade notification letter when actually applying and then eligibility is going to be determined after they met with our trade staff and their application assessment process. So re-employment services and eligibility assessment. So RSEA one of our program and one of our many programs with the division of re-employment strives to empower unemployment insurance claimants with the necessary tools to rapidly gain sustainable employment while upholding the integrity of the unemployment compensation program. So the primary goals of our RSEA program are to improve employment outcomes for individuals that receive unemployment compensation thereby reducing the duration of how much they're receiving their UI benefits due to a gained employment. We also strengthen the UI program integrity to reduce improper payments as well and then promote the alignment with a broader vision of the workforce innovation and opportunity act increasing program integration and service delivery for job seekers. So anybody who is filing unemployment and they do not have a return to work within 112 days with their former employer, they're going to be required to attend an any-res orientation through the RSEA program. So this may be the first time an individual is actually meeting with a workforce professional and what our staff is going to do is really sit down develop and complete an objective assessment summary that's going to assist them in identifying their past work experience what barriers to employment they currently are facing and what services we can get them connected to so we can assist them in concentrating on getting back to re-employed as soon as possible. We also sit down with them and develop individual employment plans and goals and then objectives as milestones to assist them in accomplishing those goals. As our staff are identifying these barriers then they're making those connections with our WIOA career planners, our Jobs for Veterans State grants, our SNAP programs or additional partner resources that we have in the community to assist them in those barriers and to decrease the time that they are on employment. Next, and this isn't a program, this is actually our migrant season farm worker outreach services actually falls under our Wagner-Piser program but it's specialized outreach that we do within Greater Nebraska. So for migrant season farm workers we serve those job seekers and employers again like I mentioned through the Wagner-Piser Act and some of the services include those basic services that you see in Wagner-Piser but can get into the intensive services through WIOA which is any works registration assistance training opportunities for them, job search assistance, job referrals and the referrals to supportive services, complaint resolution and then agricultural recruitment system. So again special attention is given to provide migrant and seasonal farm workers with employment services and assist them with navigating the employment complaint process. Employment services as I mentioned there include that labor market information workshops, skills testing, application assistance, resumes and interviewing and referrals to training resources and what we do is our staff actually bringing our services to them so we do have a mobile unit and have the technology to actually go out and identify these migrant and seasonal farm workers where they're actually working or where they're gathering because a lot of them their hours are not conducive to being able to physically access our office so we want to bring our programs to them and we want to see what we can do to upgrade their skills to either get them a more permanent full-time all-year-round position within that current agricultural industry or see what we can do to get them out of that temporary farm work and get them into a full-time permanent position. The target population for this group is going to be an individual who is employed or was employed in the past 12 months in farm work or seasonal that was in seasonal or temporary nature and who is eligible to work in the United States and I wanted to go into the difference between migrant and seasonal farm worker real quick too so a seasonal farm worker is actually a person who during the last past 12 months worked or is working in farm work of seasonal or temporary nature and is not required to be absent overnight from his or her permanent residents a non or a migrant farm worker is a seasonal farm worker who had to travel to the farm work and was unable to return to his or her permanent residents within the same day so again we really want to get our staff out there and identify these individuals who are happening to travel for work or happening to bring their family across the state and really see what we can do to upgrade their skills so that we can get them a more secured year-round position we work closely with migrant education and then with Proteus as well too who is another partner with employment and training grants that can assist us with doing code case management and sending individuals for occupational skills training to gain those credentials so that we can assist them in being successful in getting into an industry that is more permanent and year-round another service outside of the job seeker that we provide through the department of labor division of services is our business services and the purpose of business services or our preferred employer program is to connect employers to workforce programs and services that provide comprehensive workforce solutions and to facilitate meaningful collaborations that lead to long-term solutions so our approach in business services is solution-based and we address the needs of employers by strategically aligning resources to include various services and programs by creatively thinking to develop solutions that are innovative and customized to meet their needs of the employer this may include recruiting retention training new or existing employees or layoff aversion strategies additional additionally the business services program integrates various in DOL internal teams and services and programs as well as partnering workforce agencies as seen fit according to the employers needs so our business services team they're the ones that go out and talk with our employers identify what needs that they have identifying those those sought after skills that they're looking for and they bring that information back to our job seeking staff so that we are marketing and we are developing career training pathways for our participants that are going to leave them into gaining these skills because we know that they're sought after and we know they're in high demand you know as as we work with our individuals we don't want to just get them into a job or the means of having a job we want to get them into a career we want to make sure that the services that we're providing the individual employment plans we are creating and the objectives that we are establishing are going to lead them into those family sustaining wages we want to make sure that it is a career that's going to have that longevity and we want to make sure that we have an understanding of those positions those vacancies within our Nebraska's employers and that we're providing a highly skilled workforce for those employers so that they are more competitive on a global market alright and I just have one more section go over and it's just going to be touch and base on our any works program but is there any questions for me right now on some of the different re-employment programs that we offer through the Department of Labor? Yeah I was actually just going to jump in and say hey let's see if we have questions at this point yeah so if anybody do you have any questions go ahead and type into the questions section of your GoToWebinar interface and I'll read them off to Josh we didn't have any that came while you were talking but that's okay there's a lot of information people are observing I'm sure I know I saved some to just type in a question that I was thinking of too so what do partnerships with libraries look like so what do you envision as what libraries can do? Absolutely so we kind of look at libraries as another point of access for participants that are going to need our services for the employment and training side things so we know and we've talked with a lot of different library divisions out there that you have patients that are coming in and expecting library staff to assist them with identifying training opportunities assisting them with unemployment resources assisting them with job searching job matching and upgrading their skills so what we want to do is provide the information to staff on what we do as a division so that as these individuals are coming into the office then staff are able to make that connection with our department and then generate those referrals to our field staff so that our field staff can then take over and provide that meaningful assistance to those individuals so that that's not being a burden on the actual library staff itself so you know we're really looking at our virtual service delivery model and utilizing libraries we know a lot of libraries do have the technology available so that we can provide access to services through a virtual delivery model and that's what we're looking at on the partnership side is just educating the library staff so as so that they are able to identify some of the needs of their patrons and then get those referrals to our field staff so that we are increasing our accessibility we're increasing our outreach to those rural areas for people that may not know we exist or just don't have the option or the ability to physically come into our office to learn about the resources and eligibility for the programs that we offer. Getting libraries up to speed on all of these services that they may not have known about but also librarians are not responsible for helping people with these things. You have Josh and possibly other people in his team that would be the ones you just referred them to and this I know when we talked about this we had a little kind of pre-meeting with Josh and some our regional system directors about this that a long time ago in the past there was a reach from pre-Josh's time from the Department of Labor about hey here's the things we have and then not really any follow-up after that and for a little while things were like oh great and then nobody knew what to do so this is going to be more of an ongoing type of thing too with training and so you'd be constantly regularly in contact with Josh about what's happening now, what's new how things have changed new services, whatever. Yes, exactly. I'm in the process of developing step-by-step procedures and manuals that I want to be able to send out to all the library staff so you know if it is a basic career service that they need like or if it's something with unemployment then library staff will have access to that material that they can hand off like here you go here's the step-by-step process with it if you need additional assistance we can refer you to a re-employment coordinator they'll make that contact with you and can assist you further in providing the services or assisting you with any of the technical assistance that they need for any works assist with anything on the unemployment side of thing and then assist them with making sure getting the steps done to get eligible for some of our different training programs and this is Laurie says that along in a a long time ago the Department of Labor used to have trainings at libraries for patrons not for staff for your members they're actually doing workshops in the library locations and do you want to know do we give phone numbers out emails do we reach out to you or leave it up to the people you know which like you said some people cannot travel to you I guess that would be part of the decision is it just a here's the phone number to call Josh or so what I guess it would work both ways the librarian can call you on their behalf depending yeah no it doesn't and actually I'm actually finishing up right now and again I got to get everything approved by our PIO staff before I can get everything out to the public but one thing that I'm putting the final touches on is our WI or our workforce partner guide and that's actually going to have all of our programs and then all of our partner programs the brief information on what services they provide and it's going to have the contact and the referral methods for those organizations as well too and that's going to be something that I'll send out to all staff library staff and I'll periodically update as we have any change or any changes in staff or changes within our programs as well too so it's going to be a detailed information about the different programs we operate through the Department of Labor and then which office covers each region so that if we do have people coming in then they'll have that ability to submit an email referral to provide those services and then they can see see me in that email so that I'm just making sure that our staff are reaching out to those individuals and services are rendered that's cool that's nice yeah um I had a question so would any some of this reaching contact with getting your staff in connected to the library users people need your service be done um virtually as well like some libraries are working on setting up for telemedicine or for other reasons um small meeting rooms or modular rooms that can you know one-on-one you know WebEx session or Zoom session with someone um is that something that you all would have the ability to do with people too like you said they can't travel to you but they might want to quote-unquote face-to-face virtually sure yep absolutely yeah we want to make it as less barriers as possible for the participants and with libraries having more locations than we do in a lot of areas and regions that we cover is something that we would like to do and we have the ability to do that and it's going to be kind of going on a case by case basis too um with each individual library if they're going to have you know they have that ability to provide um that computer technology um the WebEx or the WebCams um so that we can connect our re-employment staff to those individuals and we have developed some step-by-step process um for technical assistance through our WebEx meetings as well too so that if we could get the assistance from library staff just to be there to assist them with getting the meeting going on there and then from there we can actually take over we can provide that initial report building with them we can pull up all the required documentations that we're going to need signed from the participant on that WebEx meeting and they'll be able to annotate that information where we can save it directly to our system so it's not going to require them to print out any information it's not going to require library staff to scan any person-identifiable information or um documents for us we'll be able to actually get all of that accomplished through that virtual meeting with the client slick, I like that fantastic, absolutely um and Laura, especially our patrons who don't have transportation to get to any office yeah, our transportation issues uh then another question because you um was mentioned that you previously a long time ago used to have trainings at libraries for patrons um and you're talking about this more one-on-one thing but is that a possibility you want to know for the Department of Labor to do it at libraries again trainings like resume workshops or something like that is that something potentially in your plan like actually going to a library and saying we're going to be doing this particular workshop you know 10 attendees whatever yep and yeah I leave that on um individual field offices um on how they want to coordinate those workshops those presentations as well too I know COVID has kind of put us back with doing a lot of those in-person outreach those workshops and orientations but it is something um that I know a couple of the individual offices are looking at starting back up and we've actually talked about doing virtual presentations as well too for those um for those individuals so that you know we promote maybe once a quarter or once a month we're going to do a workshop um that's going to go over resume building or go over any works registration go over labor market information then that's something if an office doesn't have the ability or feel comfortable doing that in person um that we can also provide virtually as well too for those patrons yes and if the people like want to gather either in a in a meeting room at the library they could all potentially watch a small group or you just promote it to everybody in the community can log in um individually if they want yes yep exactly yep so yeah we're really really trying to practice this virtual because we know it's kind of the new world of it and um you know yeah and we don't we we our staff cover a large area as well too so that's how I say it's kind of based off an office by office basis on their availability um to promote and to do those workshops but I know just not too long ago um our region five office had his one of their workforce core or re-employment coordinators uh at I think it was the North Fork Library or South Sioux Library I can't remember um and sitting there to promote to do workshops as well too for people so I know it's still happening um it just may not be as active as it was prior to COVID but that's what we're trying to go through a virtual services and see how we can still provide our services and educate everyone so they can access us and get the information without physically happening to come into our office absolutely um yeah I know we've all over the last couple of years been quote-unquote forced into a lot of this virtual um we've been doing encompass live version like this for over 10 years so it was not new to us but um first doing meetings and other events and things um but it's kind of had the side effect you know we were forced into it but many more people have now been able to participate that never could before homebound people or disabled people people who do not have the ability to travel even to potentially their local library for a training in person because they take care of their kids or they have a job and just can't um but there's a virtual thing they could just from home quickly log into or be able to participate and I think it's something that is going to stick around and I hope it sticks around that there's always the both options you can do it in person but we're going to have virtual for all of those of you that we now know this stuff just wasn't ever available um just because of the inability to get to an in person in person you know we're well learned and gotten comfortable with this our last couple years and I'm hoping it's yeah I think it's going to have to stick around I agree absolutely any other questions right now looks like they're still down a bit at the moment like I said we are going to go longer than our official time because of some of the technical issues we had earlier but we will get through all of Josh's presentation and any questions any of you have please do what we want to stick around with us as long as we go but if you do have to leave that's okay we will keep recording you can watch the rest of it later so I can continue I think you said a few more things talk about yep absolutely yep so I just want to go a brief um overview of Nebraska works um you know our internal job exchange um I know a lot of you have probably seen it or probably been asked for to assist patrons either getting registered or navigating the actual website itself and this is another um material that I've actually created step by step processes um for the any works registration and accessing different tools on any works including the unemployment services so that library staff can utilize that to provide to patrons so that they can do it self-guided themselves on there so it's something that you know it's not going to take your time away with getting someone registered for any works or accessing um the different services that we offered there but just a brief overview if you haven't seen any works of just kind of what it is so that as I'm sending some this material after this call then you'll you'll understand the pertinence um the importance of that material and how it's going to assist you with at least just providing information to those patients that are coming in there so it's reducing the time that you're having to spend on on providing these services so any works is uh the state of Nebraska's largest most comprehensive online job database it's a Nebraska business of every size and industry utilize any works um to connect with thousands of highly qualified job seekers including a large bank of professionals high skilled workers and veterans so job seekers whether unemployed or seeking a new career are going to benefit from taking time to register with any works for their career exploration there are several functionalities within this job database that include career pathway planning employer connections skills assessments resume assistance hiring events and job fairs and unemployment insurance benefits some of the features that we have for job seekers are going to be the eligibility explorer the career pathway planning employer connections skills assessments resume builder and unemployment insurance benefits and what the eligibility explorer is is a one-stop system that is designed to provide assistance through coordination of partner agencies offering services to help with employment and training opportunities these services are provided at no cost and are designed to help job seekers and gaining employment programs may be able to offer training and can provide job search assistance and available that are available through our local American job center by completing this pre application appropriate referrals to programs um job seekers may qualify for can be provided access these services so part of that step-by-step guide that I have for staff is how individuals can fill out the eligibility explorer after they've actually successfully registered by asking a few questions on this program it'll identify some of the programs that I mentioned earlier that they may qualify for and then they'll send they'll be able to do a self referral to our actually staff to our staff members so that they can get in contact and determine further eligibility and start the enrollment process in case management process to assist them in their employment and training needs it's a career pathway planning another service that they can utilize through any works um they have the ability to do career services which is um tips career explorer career match information on job market explorer they'll have job seeking services where they can actually view open positions they can look at labor market information including job trends they're actually allowed to build a resume and then set up virtual recruiters and that virtual recruiter will actually bring in specific job search criteria to the individuals every time they log in as new positions are getting posted on our website they'll actually get email updates of these new positions if they've selected the criteria of something that they are interested in they'll also going to have access to our education services they'll actually be able to look at our training our eligible training providers that we utilize for workforce innovation opportunity act so that they know that if they go into that course of study through that institution and they qualify for WIOA then we'll be able to assist them financially and assist them with creating that budget for them so that we can successfully obligate funds to help them um secure those training credentials and again they have access to labor market information so if they're looking at getting into a new career field they'll be able to go through and look at um labor market facts you know what industries are growing which are paying what and then what skills um they're going to need in order to be more markable for those positions along with community services and benefits they're going to be able to access all of our WIOA core programs and require partners through WIOA to see what additional resources are available to assist them with overcoming their barriers to employment along with financial services and literacy alright so employer connections um so as you can see there as an individual goes through looking for a job they'll pull up jobs that kind of look like this and give them a rough estimate of what the pay is for that specific position so as I mentioned um during the introduction in any works employers of all sizes utilize this site to seek out their talent job seekers who have an active registration in any works will have access to thousands of positions in a state and they're actually able to filter their search criteria to specific occupation and area that they're going to be searching they also have the option as I mentioned to step that virtual recruiter tools that cool that tool as I mentioned creates an automated job search on the behalf of the job seeker and once they have successfully filled out uh the jobs alert criteria the system will generate alerts with new jobs as they are posted another access they have is skills assessments um as you can see there's a variety of different skills uh skill assessments that they can complete in the any works career assessments they are a great tool to assist job seekers in determining a career or occupation that best suits their skills and experience there are several assessments um that one may use and some are actually going to be required in enrolling in a certain re-employment program so there's a couple of these skills assessments before they can get enrolled in our programs that they're going to be required to take but it's an additional opportunity for them to utilize so that they can just identify um some of their career aspirations and what they're going to need to work on to meet those career goals and resume builder as I mentioned so anybody um that registers for any works has access to this tool as well too so the resume template will allow clients to fill in their objective skills education and work history that they would like to showcase to a potential employer they are able to have no more than five different resumes attached to their actual any works profile and if they choose not to utilize some of the information that you see there on the template they're not required to do so but once that template is completed they're going to receive a score an overall score of how well their template was created to help them out with adjusting some things to making sure that their resume is really going to showcase their skills and experience and get that employer's attention um once they receive that score and they're finished completed the resume will automatically put the information provided into a nice clean template that they're going to be able to access from anywhere at any time um and it is worth noting that there are many employers that post on our website that require applicants to apply to their positions utilizing the resume that they have on any work such as a different application method that they do utilize and a well developed resume is also going to be required for anybody that's filing unemployment insurance benefits again something that they can utilize through our website and complete alright and then the last thing is just unemployment insurance benefits so there's three initial and continued steps for receiving unemployment and anybody that's going to be filing for unemployment has to utilize and do so with our any works um job search engine so as I mentioned three initial and continued steps for receiving unemployment insurance benefits that some of you have probably seen or have been asked for assistance for in the past is unemployment and it is worth noting that you know even our reemployment field staff do not conduct the process for the unemployment claims for the client so it's definitely something we don't want library staff to be doing either and that's why I'm going to provide you guys with the information on the step by step processes for clients so that they can do that on their own we don't we don't want library staff our partner other partners or even our staff that are not unemployment to be filing unemployment claims on behalf of the participants because it can lead into a lot of issues if they get declined or if there's any sort of fraud that's determined throughout their claim process I just wanted to note that we do not expect any one of our partners to be filing those claims but just giving you an idea of what the clients are seeing and what some of my step by step process is going to assist you in being able to provide them with that information and then from there they should be able to successfully complete their unemployment insurance so the first step is for claimants to file an initial unemployment claim on any works there's going to be a self-guided process where claimants will be required to answer questions pertaining to their previous work experience and the events that took place that led them to an unemployed status after a claimant has filed a new claim they're going to be required to conduct a job search and file a weekly claim for every week they are unemployed or their hours have been reduced and it does take them about 21 days to actually process a new unemployment claim but again not something that we have an expectation and we really don't want our library partners or any of partners helping out with that unemployment but just wanted to let you know that yeah when individuals come in to register for any works there's a good chance they're doing so to file that on insurance claim and I just want to make sure that you were aware that they're doing that and then I can provide you guys with the information to provide to your patrons so that they can go through that by themselves and get that filed and then if they do have any problems then part of our resource guide is going to be that contact information to a link in unemployment adjudicators that they can call to get further assistance alright and that was it for the any works I just kind of want to touch base on the website itself in case you hear of anyone that's going to utilize it anybody that's enrolled in any of our programs have to be registered for any works that would be the first step as individuals are coming in looking for job seeking or training or employment or training services is to make sure that we're getting them registered for any works and for you as partners that could just be simply providing the step by step process that I provide so that they can get an accurate registration in there and then do that self referral through our eligibility explorer so then our re-employment staff can make that initial outreach and contact to determine further program eligibility and see what we need to do to provide them the assistance so do I have any questions on any works let's see I don't see anything that pop came in while you're talking does anybody have any questions about the any works program website I can type into the questions section it looks like everybody's still here that's awesome thank you so much everybody just sticking with it and I just like to say yeah any works is a great resource and definitely definitely the place to start I've always kept an eye on that for people yep absolutely yeah and like I said Krista if you like for me I can send you all of these resources that I have created I'm going to kind of organize them out into different folders so that they're pertinent for each of our programs that we have there some of it's just going to be desk guides or aids for the librarians and staff there that they can just provide two job seekers on there and then someone's just going to be the best practices as well of connecting that staff with our with our field staff so that we can identify those career and training needs so that we can make those contacts for individuals so as a partnership with the library we're just needing assistance in marketing our services so that we're reaching that underserved population those that don't know we exist don't have a full understanding on how to connect with us or those that have those physical barriers where they cannot access our offices we're just really needing an assistance and identifying those underserved populations so that we can really identify the skills that they need and get them enrolled in our programs get their skills upgraded so that we're filling these vacant positions with our Nebraska employers with our local Nebraska residents and I think that's great I mean that's a good point to make that because I know I'm sure oftentimes when this kind of thing comes up to librarians where it says let's have a partnership for a new thing that you know the fear is more that we have to figure out and learn and do and they're happy to do many new things but it is a great thing that the people are out there at the Department of Labor and it's the workforce development areas that you we just need to make that connection absolutely so you know who to send people through that you're as the staff at the libraries you are not floundering around and wondering and saying well here's a website I don't know anything else figure it out you got a little bit of info but it's all a definitely a referral thing and there are people out there that are available and waiting and want you to contact them to get in connected with these people that need the help absolutely we just want to lessen that burden and we know the library they're actively involved in the community so they may know a lot more than we do of the needs of the local community and if they have those different that information or the needs that need to be addressed and they can reach out to us directly as well too so that we can plan those different outreach or workshops for those local communities so that we can assist in promoting employers or assist in upgrading skills you're not limited to whatever we do get these the documentation guys that you're putting together that you're not limited to that if there's something else you come up with from your side from the librarian library side and say here's something I know is needed reach out to Josh and we can maybe put something together this is something that we you mentioned that knowing what's in the community this is something that could definitely benefit the libraries we do have help libraries do what we call community needs response plans which are used then as part of their accreditation process for libraries that want to become accredited and it is look outside the library what's happening in your community what do they need and what can you do to respond to it so this whole program here is a perfect thing to put into your community's response plan just as a tip if you're looking for something to go to say here's a goal we have or here's a program we want to do this is like perfectly set up for that absolutely well it doesn't look like anybody has any other questions at the moment they typed in about any work or anything does anybody have any of those desperate last minute things you want to ask Josh right now while we have him here type into the questions section if not we will have his contact info and we will be reaching out with all of that documentation when it is ready so you'll be hearing from Josh again so we also are through the regional library systems as I said you did meet with our regional library system directors and the four systems too so they're going to be involved in somehow also keeping the back and forth going with libraries too I can't see if you're actually typing it's not like where it lets me know so I have to kind of wait until your message comes up but it doesn't look like anything has come in so I think that's good I think we can wrap it up thank you so much Josh I'm glad you got back able to do your presentation this is very important and good and useful information for all the libraries as I know I appreciate the opportunity Chris and like I said once you get these this information developed I'll start sending them out nationwide then I'll give everyone my direct email as well too so that there's any issues or just one additional understanding programs technical assistance or training or anything they can always reach out to me directly and work through those so that we can make sure that our agencies providing our end of the margin and really making those connections and serving those populations as library staff are identifying them perfect and keep that back and forth going absolutely alright great thank you thank you so much Josh thank you everyone for being here with us this morning stick around for the show as I said it has been is being recorded and we'll be on our website here I'm showing I've got our webpage up here these are upcoming shows but here's a link to our archives it's right here at the bottom most recent ones go at the top so today's will be here by the end of the day tomorrow it should be up they'll be a link to our recording on our YouTube and then Josh will you send me your slides yes absolutely well the slides up as well so you'll have that available too if to look over as well when this is ready I will email everyone who attended today and everyone who registered for today's show to let you know when it's ready some time tomorrow should be done while we're here I'll show you this is our full show archive you can search a little search feature here if you want to look for if you've done a show on a particular topic we do have a limit here you can search the whole full show archives or just most recent 12 months if you want something just very current and I did mention earlier we've been doing Encompass Live for over 10 years now this is our full show I'm not going to scroll at the bottom because that would be dizzying but just do pay attention when you do watch an archive to the original broadcast date they all have the date there so you know when it originally happened some information in the shows will stand the test of time they'll be good and useful but some things will become outdated and old services may have changed drastically links might not work anymore websites might have disappeared who knows but this is what we do in Suburban one of the things we do is keep things for historical purposes and as long as we have a place to host them we'll have our full show archives out there so just pay attention when you are watching any recordings we also have you can see here on our main page we've got a link here a Facebook page for Encompass Live if you do like to use Facebook give us a like over there we do post reminders your reminder to log in today's show announcements when recordings you're ready when the shows are coming up so you'll find all of that here on our Facebook page we also post on to Instagram and Twitter and we have a little hashtag and come live a little abbreviation of our name if you want to just search for that hashtag and other social media that wraps up today's show I hope you join us if you have got some more November days getting filled in I even have some things in front for December so keep it on our schedule but next week it is the last Wednesday of the month so that means it's pretty sweet tech day the last Wednesday of every month Amanda Sweet comes on and does our technology innovation librarian here comes on and does the show so if you're the tech person or in the tech this is definitely the one to sign up for and next week she's going to talk about a new service we have are offering here now through the library commission tech kits through the mail if you want to try some things out or your patrons will try things out we can we're circulating these things so libraries all across the state she's been working on this before the pandemic started but was restricted on what could be let out and how to do lending uses safety but now it's full going full strong I think everything is being we'll see we'll hear for next week but so definitely sign up for that next week and any of our other shows coming up keep an eye on our schedule here for more when we get them filled in thank you everybody for being here this morning thanks Josh and hopefully we'll see you on next future episode of my topic 5 bye