The 2011 SAWDC Worlds of Opprtunity Career Expo was a Success! Read more in our

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Students at the Expo. Photos Courtesy of SAWDC and Terry Wilhite with Baldwin County Schools.

On September  28^th & 29^th , 2011,  more than ten thousand eighth grade students, teachers, school administrators, parents, industry leaders and volunteers converged on the Fairgrounds in Mobile, Alabama for the second annual "SAWDC Worlds of Opportunity" Career Expo. The purpose of the Expo was to create awareness about career options among students and educators while addressing workforce needs in the region.

The career expo, a project of the Southwest Alabama Workforce Development Council (SAWDC), was a fun, educational, hands-on opportunity for students to become familiar with a broad overview of jobs available in the area.  Attendance to the expo was available to students from an eight county workforce development region which includes Baldwin, Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia, Mobile, Monroe, and Washington Counties. 

Please see below for a follow up interview with Laura Davis Chandler, Executive Director of SAWDC.

1.  The Worlds of Opportunity Career Expo was a huge event.  9,500 students got a chance to talk to professionals in many fields from the region: welding, electronics, engineering, medical technicians, nurses, etc.  The  twelve various worlds featured  specific careers and  'hands-on' activities demonstrating  job duties, and students were able to choose the worlds they were interested in visiting.  CGEDA was told that buses arrived at the Greater Gulf State Fairgrounds every 15 minutes with around 100 students. How did the planning committee, SAWDC and other volunteers keep organized? Months of planning went into this event. The various committees began to meet regularly in January of 2011 in preparation, all with the goal of building upon the successes of the 2010 expo. Each "World Leader" manages his or her own world, with general support and direction from the SAWDC staff coordinator of Worlds of Opportunity. Volunteers poured countless hours into ensuring companies, volunteers, and students were scheduled to participate.

2.  How many schools attended the Expo? How much time did each school spend at the Expo? There were 76 schools in attendance this year, with each spending just under two hours on site.

3.  This Career Expo was a moving opportunity for students to recognize their own potential and skills, and apply them to the different occupations.  What kind of response did the Expo receive from students who attended? How interactive and enthusiastic were they? Did many of them verbalize their interest in a particular career at the event or in survey results? SAWDC continues to receive outstanding feedback from community leaders, educators and students who participated. The hands-on focus is really the factor that distinguishes Worlds of Opportunity from similar events. Our World Leaders and volunteers know that if they can engage a student in a career-related discussion by allowing the student to perform the job task, it will have a much stronger impact than a brochure and a lecture. One of the most telling outcomes of last year's even was the student follow-up survey. SAWDC is currently conducting a follow-up survey, and we're anxious to hear more great feedback from the students.

4.  One of the Expo's goals was to give 8^th graders a good understanding of the top jobs in Southwest Alabama so that as they transition into the 9^th grade, with the knowledge gained at the Expo, students can make informed decisions about their career paths, set some career goals and devise a plan to achieve those goals.  Do you think the expo was able to meet this goal?  Please elaborate. Although it's still very early to tell, we do believe that Worlds of Opportunity is helping inform students about career options. Many of the school systems in our region use Career Cruising or similar programs to help students explore careers and map their future courses based on career interests. In Mobile County, for example, the Worlds of Opportunity experience is part of a broader, multi-year plan to increase career awareness among students. Initial estimates show an increase in the number of eighth graders utilizing the career exploration programs.

5.  Students don't necessarily need a degree from a four-year college to get a good-paying job. But they'll need a high school diploma, and will need to pass drug tests.  Did requirements and salary ranges of certain fields seem to surprise students in attendance? It's always surprising to hear how many students have programmed responses of "I can't do that job. I'm not good with Science." or "I'm not college material." Industry representatives who volunteer at the expo try to further engage students in career-related conversations to push past that initial reaction. One volunteer tells the story of a student who insisted he wasn't smart enough for a certain job within the aerospace industry. After discovering the student loved to skateboard, she asked him if he could change and maintain the various components of his skateboard. When he responded that he could, she explained that those same tasks he performed for his skateboard were what her company did for airplanes. It changed the student's perception.

One of our best tools in communicating career information is a booklet that is published and distributed to every single student in attendance. Booklets detail salary information and educational details, and that same information is displayed on signage in each of the Worlds. Everything is tied to careers. While some careers require a four-year degree, many high demand, high wage jobs in our region do not. That is a key event message.

6.  There were 99 exhibitors at the first annual Career Expo. 115 exhibitors were at the expo this year.  Do you expect the number of exhibitors will grow at next year's Expo? We do expect Worlds of Opportunity to keep growing. Only weeks before the event we were still getting phone calls from companies that were interested in participating. We also hope to be able to expand the number of Worlds that participate. This year we added a World of Hospitality & Tourism, and we have a few other industries who have expressed an interest in participating in the future.

7.  Statistics show that many students drop out of high school during their freshman year.  It will be interesting to see if the dropout rate for high school students from that particular class declines due to the expo in Region 9.  Will SAWDC be tracking these numbers to show the positive result of the Expo? We will be evaluating the dropout rate from year-to-year. It is important to remember that there are many SAWDC partner organizations throughout the region working to lower the high school dropout rates through various programs and initiatives. Worlds of Opportunity is only one of those initiatives. Our hope is that the collaboration of all of these partnerships will have a tremendous impact on the number of students earning a high school diploma and entering the workforce.

8.  CGEDA has been told this will be an annual event.  Is there a projected date for next year's Expo?  It took a year to plan this year's fantastic event - when will you all begin planning for next year's? When will sponsorships be available? The 2012 dates have not been set yet, but it will most likely be held the last week of September once again. Currently we are focusing on event wrap-ups and holding discussions on how to make the 2012 expo even better. Work for next year's event will begin immediately afterwards. Those interested in sponsoring the 2012 event can contact SAWDC at (251) 445-2090.

For in-depth information on this year's event please visit: http://www.sawdc.org/.  There you will find information on the event and its worlds/ industry sectors, sponsors, materials used by teachers and students from the 8 county workforce development region, the steering committee and volunteers.

One of our goals at the CGEDA is to have everyone in our region know who we are and what we do. That includes knowing our board members. Because our board is constantly growing, we will continue highlighting board members in our newsletter, Gateway News, so that you will know who is representing the region. This month, we would like to introduce CGEDA Secretary Larry Woods.

For a full listing and photos of the current Coastal Gateway Board of Directors, please click here. 

For a full listing of the current Coastal Gateway investors, please click here.

PERSONAL BIOGRAPHY

Larry W. Woods

I was born in Atmore, Alabama, a small town in South Alabama and attended elementary school for the first three years in Atmore. As a child, I spent a lot of time with my grandfather outdoors. My grandfather taught me how to fish and shoot a rifle and shotgun before my 8th birthday.

At age 10, my family moved to Pensacola, Florida. I lived in Pensacola, Florida until I graduated from Pensacola Christian High in 1974. After high school graduation, I moved to Pace, Florida. Before starting my lifelong power company career, I worked several jobs such as pest control technician, peanut shellery employee, manager of GM Dealer auto parts department and offshore oil rig employee.

I started work for Gulf Power Company in 1977. The first part of my career was in power generation at Plant Crist. I worked in power plant operations and fuel handling for 27 years. In 2004, I transferred to Georgia Power as a fuel handling supervisor and stayed at Georgia Power for 3 years.

In 2007, I transferred to Alabama Power Company in Brewton, Alabama where I am employed as the Alabama Power Brewton Office Manager. The geographical area my office services is Greater Brewton, East Brewton, Pollard and Castleberry.

After being employed with Gulf Power for many years, I returned to school to complete a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business in 1992. I also completed a Master of Science Degree in Business Management in 1999 from Troy University.

I have been married to my wonderful wife, Sharon Woods, for the past 34 years. I have 2 grown children, a daughter and a son, and I have a 2-1/2-year-old granddaughter who demands much of our time.

I presently serve on several boards in the Brewton area:

1) Escambia County Habitat for Humanity

2) Coastal Gateway Regional Economic Development Alliance

3) Castleberry Community Development Center

4) Brewton Tree & Beautification Committee

5) Georgia Pacific Community Awareness Committee

A new economic development tool was unveiled last month with the public debut of Choose ALABAMA. The site was created to be the leading web portal allowing access to economic development information on the state of Alabama, its counties and communities. Auburn University at Montgomery, The University of Alabama and the Alabama Department of Finance, collaborated to create the site.

Dr. Keivan Deravi, a leading economic consultant in Alabama, of Auburn University at Montgomery, led four sessions introducing the new tool to economic developers in September. Sessions were held in Birmingham, Florence, Mobile and Montgomery.

Choose ALABAMA is a free comprehensive economic development tool that can access key information needed to support activities important to attracting new businesses to the area.

The website consists of three sections. The County/Community Profile section allows the user to select a county and view county-specific data and download a county profile in pdf, Microsoft^® Word or Microsoft^® Excel format. The county-specific data include demographics, education, industry, occupation, workforce and employment and community links information. 

The Economic Impact Estimator section allows the user to calculate a rough estimate of economic impact based on operating employment and wages for a given industry. 
 

The third section is Economic Development Resources which highlights economic development resources in the state, including community profiles; quality of life; site selection; small business and entrepreneurial development; infrastructure; and taxes, incentives and financial assistance. 

To view the website go to http://www.choosealabama.net/.

Coastal Gateway Regional Economic Development Alliance (CGEDA) held a Board Development Meeting on September 22nd at BankTrust in Monroeville, AL.

Joe Sumners, Director of the Economic and Community Development Institute at Auburn University, and Nisa Miranda, Director of the Center for Economic Development at the University of Alabama facilitated the meeting. Members of the Board of Directors and Coastal Gateway staff were in attendance to discuss characteristics of an effective board, regional assets, regionalism, and roles and responsibilities of CGEDA. Board members also worked to establish a strategic plan for the year 2012.

Dedicated leadership is a key component of successful economic development. The CGEDA Board of Directors is comprised of a diverse but cohesive group. Members of the board strongly support the concept of Coastal Gateway and promoting the area as a region. During the meeting board members cited regionalism as important for various reasons. Working as a region can provide more marketable assets, a stronger voice, greater capacity and resources, economy of scale and a pathway to problem solving.

Sumners said, "Because rural areas are sparsely populated, they lack a critical mass - of taxpayers, leadership, financial capacity, infrastructure, and skilled labor. So if rural communities are to survive, they must join forces and work together. Rural communities must learn to see the neighboring town as a competitor only for the Friday night football game."

CGEDA would like to thank The Montgomery Institute for sponsoring the meeting.

Alabama Communities of Excellence (ACE) and Alabama Community Leadership Network (ACLN) held the Defining the Future Conference on October 5^th-6^th in Montgomery, AL. CGEDA and other representatives from the Coastal Gateway region attended the conference. Attendees from across the state were comprised of: community and business leaders, state and local officials, economic and community developers, university professionals, community and regional planners, and chamber of commerce members.

Numerous topics were covered including: developing youth leadership, enhancing skills for success, addressing community issues, grant writing, and rural healthcare.

The Alabama Communities of Excellence (ACE) program uses a comprehensive, three-phase approach to assist participating communities in planning and preparing for a more vibrant future. Throughout each of these phases, ACE partners from the private sector, government agencies and universities work with each community to successfully achieve its goals.

The Coastal Gateway region is fortunate to have six Alabama Communities of Excellence within its borders. ACE Community participants in the Coastal Gateway region include: Atmore, Brewton, Evergreen, Jackson, Monroeville, Thomasville. These communities have recently been re-certified as they must be re-certified every three years.  

For more information regarding the ACE program, please click here. 

The Coastal Gateway Regional Economic Development Alliance Facebook Page is another good opportunity to help us keep in touch with you. Here you can view photos, happenings of the Alliance throughout the year and regional events as they relate to economic development.

There sixty-seven members on our page so far.  We encourage you to join in and help spread the news about the Facebook Page.  If you would like us to post specific information or include pictures from your region please contact info@cgeda.net.

To visit or join the page: click here.

CGEDA is also on Twitter! We encourage you to follow us on Twitter to keep up to date on news in the region! To follow us on Twitter: click here.