National Association of Counties Meeting Report
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Commissioner Goslin serves on the Board of the National Association of
Counties (NACo) and is attending its fall meeting today and tomorrow. He sends back this report:
The first topic of discussion at the Board Meeting is one of
critical importance to Cook County citizens--job creation. I attended
a briefing regarding yesterday's White House Jobs Forum, where NACo was
represented. The forum included breakout sessions on topics such as
Infrastructure Investment, Green Jobs, Transportation and Workforce
Development. President Obama's purpose in calling the forum was to
engage a dialogue about what can be done to reduce the nation's
unemployment rate and create new jobs as soon as possible.
NACo is advocating accelerated retraining of the workforce, federal
government funding and support for job training programs, which the
board feels can be as critical to economic development as the tax
incentives offered to developers by states and localities. We also
reflected on the need to prepare workers for highly-skilled jobs in
fields that are likely to grow in the near future. As Labor Secretary
Hilda Solis stated at the forum, "A lack of trained workers can hold
back employers from hiring even when good jobs are available."
I learned today that $100 million in federal funding will be
allocated to incentivize collaborative partnerships between community
colleges and nonprofits to work together to create job opportunities.
NACo has a new program to help counties access funds and implement
these workforce development plans which it will be rolling out in 2010.
I am meeting with the NACo staff next week to determine how to bring
these funds into our community.
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