Transforming Education and Employment
The Chester County Food Bank provides food and nutrition education to its residents who are at-risk or experiencing food insecurity in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
From Food Bank to Workforce Builder:
FRESHstart Kitchen™
As the central hunger-relief organization in the county, Chester County Food Bank serves a network of 160 partners to meet emergency food needs while establishing long-term solutions to chronic food insecurity. They serve over 40,000 residents through food distribution and education, health, and wellness.
The Challenge
Outdated Intake and Data Management System
WSW has had to adapt to the new economy that has been impacted by COVID-19. They had to adapt quickly and drive towards virtual services, ramping up that virtual access in the first six months, including career services, case management, career development, training, gaining credentials, and connecting to jobs. As the pandemic continues into its second year, they are focusing on a hybrid approach. They have found that combining human interaction with virtual services such as workshops was most successful in finding job placements.
This hybrid approach is being embraced across the country and is also being embraced by the communities they serve. They are seeing more job seekers engaging with their platforms and services. Using Launchpad’s Case Management system, they can see the engagement levels with their services and provide them perspective and important information on the outcomes of those services.
When it comes to how COVID-19 affected businesses in their region, businesses were really struggling to find and retain employees, and businesses were having to face closings and layoffs. But also, COVID-19 has allowed people time to reflect on what is important to them, their career paths, and what they need from an employer to provide for themselves and their families. Job seekers are looking for more than just a paycheck.
WSW recently launched its new strategic plan in the Vancouver-Portland metro area, and one of its top goals is to implement a Quality Jobs Strategy. WSW is working with stakeholders in the community to define better what job quality means locally. For example, are wages high enough to support an individual or an individual AND their family? They are also looking at implementing benefits packages. An often overlooked but equally essential part of workplaces is workplace culture and employee hiring policies. Do employers genuinely demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion? Is the workplace safe, and do employees feel it is a healthy environment where their ideas are heard and opinions respected? Have they thought through career pathways within their organizations? WSW is committed to working with businesses that provide these quality
The Solution
How Launchpad helped WSW provide services to job seekers and employers
Launchpad enables them to record data on these businesses that offer high-quality jobs and connect them to job seekers who have the skills they’re looking for. WSW also uses Launchpad to track how businesses are making progress on improving their company to provide better job quality.
WSW have also mobilized their partners to use Launchpad business outreach and service delivery tracking. Because all of their partners are on Launchpad, it makes it very easy to communicate with everyone things such as workforce plans and projections.
Tracking outcomes isn’t limited to just partners. Tracking investments for both job seekers and employers has been a challenge for WSW. Launchpad allowed WSW to track job seekers throughout their entire journey, from enrollment to placement. It also allows them to see the experience they had within the system as well. Having the ability to see this information in real-time enables WSW to make any adjustments right away to ensure that both spending and focus are where they need it to be. They can now report key information to stakeholders such as what businesses and industries have been impacted by the pandemic, how employees were affected, what programs are being used to maintain themselves, etc.
Being able to track these things was a simple configuration that WSW was able to make to their Launchpad software on their own, which was game-changing. The ability to configure and make changes as we need them has been immensely beneficial.
Lastly, now that Launchpad has integrated with LinkedIn Learning, job seekers can now log in and take courses at their own pace and schedule. Launchpad automates that information in real-time to WSW’s CRM, so they can see what the job seeker is learning and where they are.
Also, when it comes to automation, Launchpad’s capability to automatically link job seekers to programs and services available to them allows WSW as a WorkSource board to mitigate many risks and concerns and ease the administrative burden.
Benefits of Launchpad for the FRESHstart Kitchen include:
- Enhanced process efficiency
- Data accuracy for informed decision-making
- Improved security of sensitive information, including case notes
- Central location for all FRESHstart Kitchen data
- Better communication for and with students/graduates
As a result, Launchpad provides the opportunity to reevaluate how the FRESHstart Kitchen can do better in eliminating barriers and how to best support students who are currently in the program and two years post-graduation.
Customer Success
Darcy Hoffman
Director of Business Services
"The ability to configure and make changes as we need them
has been immensely beneficial to supporting our initiatives"
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