People offered chance to ‘Take Charge’
By J. Dana Haynes
Of The Print
“We see this as the
number one problem in
Clackamas County,” Lee
Fawcett, assistant dean of stu
dent aid, said.
The problem to which
Fawcett referred is unemploy
ment. Approximately 14,000
people are without work in this
county, which is about 10 per
cent of the populace.
Next Saturday, April 16,
Clackamas Community Col
lege will attempt to do
something to alleviate this pro
blem. The College is hosting
Take Charge Day, a series of
events from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30
p.m. that are aimed at pro
viding options for the
unemployed citizens of the
metropolitan area.
“We don’t want people to
come here thinking they’re go*
ing to get a job and solve all
their problems,” Fawcett said.
. “They won’t find that here, buf
it will help.”
There will be four main
programs in the day’s activities.
These programs, called tracks,
include:
—Focus on people who
are unemployed for the first,
time in years. These people
have often had jobs for
decades and suddenly find
themselves unemployed. For
this group, Take Charge Day
will look at job hunting skills,
such as resume writing, inter
view skills, and how to present
oneself to a prospective
employer.
—Focus on people who
have never held a job. This
track is one toward which the
College normally works.
Teaching job skills has always
been a major role of the com
munity college system, Fawcett
said.
—Focus on people who
are thinking of becoming self-
employed. There are many
marketable skills which a per
son may practice at home. To
demonstrate the point, the Col
lege has invited self-employed
people to come and show, their
skills in the Randall Hall gym
during the lunch break. Guests
will talk about such at-home
work as babysitting, freelance
writing, small-engine repair
and house-sitting.
—Focus on families which
have gone frorri two income to
one income. The main thrust
of this track will be on
budgeting techniques and
teaching families to live on less.
Such skills as how to repair
your own appliances and how
to live on a set budget will be
discussed.
Several different depart
ments from around the College
are participating in Take
Charge Day. Fawcett is coor
dinating these departments,
which include the Career
MARV THORNLEY IS looking for more than 100
Development and Job Place
ment Center, which is in volunteers to help at Take Charge Day, April 16. The day
charge of corralling the more is a series of events that is aimed to provide options for
than 100 volunteers who will unemployed people in the Metropolitan area.
be needed, Public Information
Photo by Russ McMillen
Office, which is in charge of
advertising for the event, and
Police Sciences department,
whose students will help direct project we’ve worked on,” the College is expecting 500 to
Fawcett said.
800 people to attend the day
traffic.
There will be 80 separate long event. He pointed out that
People wishing to volun
teer for any of the two hour workshops that day, as well as one need not be unemployed
shifts can contact Placement •representatives from the to sign up for the workshops.
Officer Marv Thornley at ext. various small businesses 1 in
The idea for. Take Charge
213. Thornley pointed out that Clackamas County and 35 Day did not originate at the
many volunteers will be need agencies, including CETA College, McMurdo explained.
(Comprehensive Employment Several small colleges hàve
ed to handle such tasks as
registration, guiding registrants, and Training Act) and Adult had similar events, often called
serving coffee and. lunch and and Family Services.
Move Ahead Days.
“We’re trying to find op
generally assisting in the
Fawcett and other repre
tions to simply going out and sentatives from Clackamas
workshops.
1 “I’ve seen more people looking for work,” Kevin Community College talked to
pitching in and trying to help McMurdo, public relations of several school administrations
with this thing than any other ficer said. McMurdo also said about their Move Ahead Days.
Fawcett said one main problem
found with those other pro
grams was the lack of follow
through.
“For the next 10 years or
so, there will be more people
looking for work than there will
be jobs,” Fawcett said. “So this
is not just a one day thing. If
people think of this as a one
time effort, then they won’t ex
pect it to help.”
Providing work skills has
always been of prime impor
tance for community colleges,
Fawcett feels. “The College
tries to stay on top of job trends
and tries to provide the kind of
training that is needed,” he
said.
However, that is not
always as easily done as said.
As the .state cuts back funding,
and the College’s ability to raise
funds via property taxes is
threatened by the recession,
job skill programs are often in
peril of losing their funding.
“We’re better able to change
with the times than other in
stitutions,” Fawcett said. “For
that reason, we’re used to be
ing more responsive to the
public.”
Child care will be provided
during Take Charge Day, and
a free lunch will be served to
participants and volunteers. In
keeping with the fourth track,
which focuses on budget keep
ing, the lunch will be nutritious
and inexpensive, McMurdo
said. The food has been
donated by local grocery
stores.
The Cabin Fever Moon
shine Band will play during
lunch. The band features Bob
Misley, chairperson of educa
tion and study skills, and plays
bluegrass fiddling music.
“We truly think that this
will be a tremendous help to
the county,” Fawcett said.
Reede appointed to job center
been any great demand for the
service yet,” Reede said.
The program will not
The Oregon Employment
show a success rate for at least
Division recently placed a job
another month.“l know how
service representative in the
many people I send out on in
Job Placement Center at
terviews; but not how many get
Clackamas Community Col
hired,” he said.
lege. “The Program is designed
Money for the program
to help place students and
Comes from state funds, so a
residents from the surrounding fee is not charged for the ser
areas in jobs,” Terry Reede, vice. When a person requests
the newly-placed represen the service of Reede, he will in
tative of the program said.
terview the job candidate to
“Job orders are called in to find out for what type of job the
the Oregon City Employment
office, and I get a new updated
list of the jobs available in the
area every day,” Reede said.
By Jenni Weber
Of The Print
The Print
&
Rhapsody J
A microfilm file of jobs is
sent from the Portland employ
ment office with possible jobs
from all over the state, as well
as parts of Washington.,
NEW OREGON EMPLOYMENT Division representative
Terry Reede helps place.
Photo by Duane Hiersche
Wednesday April 13, 1983
“The government job
placement program is not new
to the educational system. It
has been in service at both Mt.
Hood and Chemeketa Com
munity Colleges for three to
five years. I’ve only been here
(the College) about three
weeks so there hasn’t really
person will be best qualified.
Reede checks his lists to find
out if a job is open which they
would be able to take.
If so, Reede then calls the
Oregon City office to see if the
job is still open. If the job is,
Reede will then call the possible
employer to introduce the ap
plicant and set up an interview.
If there is not a job available for
the applicant, the jobs list
should be checked every day
until employment is found,
Reede said.
|
£
|
|
Applications for Print and Rhap-
sody editors will be available
April 20. Deadline is May 2. Please
contact Dana Spielmann for infor
mation at Tr. B or ext. 309.
Page 5