Call for Presenters to International Conference on Employment Strategies
International Policy Forum
"Promising Practices, Promising Policies: Inclusion of the Hardest to Serve in the 21st Century Workforce"
Goodwill Industries International, Inc., (GII) and the Ray Marshall Center for theStudy of Human Resources at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs (University of Texas at Austin) are pleased to announce an international policy forum, "Promising Practices, Promising Policies: Inclusion of the Hardest to Serve in the 21st Century Workforce," to be held April 22-24, 2002, in Austin, TX.
This forum will engage a wide range of international stakeholders on how to successfully prepare the hardest-to-serve individuals for the workforce and keep them employed. We anticipate significant sharing of promising strategies and their policy implications from a variety of environments for broad workforce inclusion. The international policy forum will result in recommendations for action to international agencies, national and local governments, and service providers.
The international policy forum is an opportunity for service providers, policymakers, researchers, and other stakeholders to network with their peers on an international scale. Participants will find meaningful discussions on strategies and policies for workforce inclusion that work. Presenters are encouraged to communicate the policy implications and recommendations that have emerged from their programs by participating in one of three focus areas: (1) Program and Service Design, (2) Mix and Duration of Services, and (3) Workforce Inclusion and the Role of Employers. Other sessions will examine educational, economic, family and personal barriers to employment, and global literacies for improved workforce development program delivery. As a result of their participation in this international policy forum, attendees will be able to return to their communities better positioned to introduce innovative workforce solutions.
For nearly a century, Goodwill Industries has helped disadvantaged populations and their families improve their economic self-sufficiency through work. The international policy forum,which is part of Goodwill's year-long Consensus to Build the 21st Century Workforce initiative, moves Goodwill closer to its current goal of serving 20 million individuals by 2020 by working to establish programs and systems that assist individuals with barriers to work gain access to skills, jobs and successful careers.
The working agenda for "Promising Practices, Promising Policies: Inclusion of the Hardest to Serve in the 21st Century Workforce" includes the following sessions:
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Employing Welfare Recipients with Significant Barriers to Work: Lessons from the Disability Field
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Implications for Public Policy:
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Program and Service Design (based on lessons learned that expectations are important and a modified "work-first" approach to employment can be successful for the hard-to-employ population)
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Mix and Duration of Service (based on lessons learned that some clients will need ongoing support to remain employed and some clients will need to mix benefits and work indefinitely)
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Workforce Inclusion and Role of Employers (based on the lesson learned that employer involvement is crucial for successful placement and retention)
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Brainstorming on Policies to Improve Services to Key Populations of the Hardest-to-Serve
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Recommendations and Action Steps for International Public Policy
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Global Literacies for Improved Workforce Development Systems in the 21st Century
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Tours of the Austin Goodwill and other local workforce development programs
Application Guidelines
To be considered as a presenter, please review the terms of participation below and respond with the following information by Friday, January 18, 2002.
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Presentation Title (limit to 10 words), consistent with the overall theme of promising policies for job creation for the hardest-to-serve populations.
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Indicate panel for which the presentation is being submitted:
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Program and Service Design
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Mix and Duration of Services
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Workforce Inclusion and the Role of Employers
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Describe the program or service you will present and the hard-to-serve clients it serves (limit to 200 words or fewer).
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List explicitly the policy implications of the program described and the crossover applicability from its target population to other hard-to-serve groups (limit to 200 words or fewer).
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Presenter Information:
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Name
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Position
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Organization
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Street and mailing address
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City, State/Province, Postal Code, Country
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Telephone
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Fax
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E-mail
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Website
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Special audiovisual needs (microphones, flipcharts, and an LCD projector with laptop computer will be supplied. Participants should bring any Microsoft PowerPoint presentations on their own 3Ÿ-inch floppy disk).
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Brief professional biography. (Please limit to one paragraph of up to 150 words; unedited résumés or curriculum vita will not be accepted)
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Digital photograph of presenter (in .jpeg format with 300 dpi resolution, if responding electronically).
Terms of participation
English will be the language of choice at the International Policy Forum. Presenters will serve on interactive panels, and should limit their oral presentations to no more than 10-15 minutes maximum. Presenters are urged to utilize Microsoft PowerPoint or other audiovisual techniques to effectively showcase their program and explicitly describe the implications and recommendations for public policy within the time allotted. Presenters selected for the event will be entitled to a free registration. Registration forms will be provided at confirmation of selection (approximately February 1, 2002). GII is unable to reimburse presenters for transportation and lodging expenses. All visa and immigration requirements for non-U.S. participants to enter the U.S. are the responsibility of each forum attendee. Submissions become the property of GII, which retains the right to publish them in conference materials, regardless if the submission is selected for presentation at the forum.
Please feel free to forward this announcement to colleagues or other workforce development and service providers, government agencies, or policy organizations that would be interested in this event. Expressions of interest are also welcome from other individuals who would like to participate as attendees at the international policy forum.
Applications by prospective presenters and any requests to be put on the conference registration mailing list should be forwarded by the close of business Friday, January 18, 2002 to:
Howard A. Wallack
Program Manager, Goodwill Global Inc.
Goodwill Industries International, Inc.
9200 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20814-3896 USA
E-mail: howard.wallack@goodwill.org
Fax: +1-301-530-1516
Background on Goodwill
Goodwill Industries International, Inc. is an association of 215 Goodwill entities around the world. In North America, GII is the largest nonprofit provider of workforce development and career services for individuals with a wide array of disadvantaging conditions and disabilities. In 2000, Goodwill programs served nearly 450,000 individuals. Goodwill provided placement services to 174,713 of these individuals, placing 77,895 in competitive employment. Goodwill places a person into a good job in the community every 92 seconds of an average workday. Of those served in 2000, 363,773 were individuals with disadvantaging conditions including welfare recipients, offenders/ex-offenders, dislocated workers, non-English speaking individuals, older workers; and homeless individuals. In 2000, Goodwill served 84,790 individuals with disabilities. For more information, visit our web site at: http://www.goodwill.org.
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