Uptown SOAR Off to a Great Start

The Urban League of Greater Cincinnati is beginning the second week of the Uptown SOAR Program.  The program has exceeded all goals regarding recruitment and enrollment, and is on pace to exceed the goal for program completion.

Uptown SOAR recruited 53 Uptown residents and enrolled a class of 25 on Monday, February 11, 2013. As of the start of Week 2, there are still 24 individuals participating. in the program. During the first week students discussed conflict resolution, thought processes for success, a stand and deliver public speaking exercise, and a module on decision making. Students were also provided with a legal clinic offered by Ohio Justice and Policy Center, and received professional business attire provided by Dress 4 Success and the Urban League’s Suit Yourself Clothing Closet. Attached are a few pictures of the class from this morning. This class will graduate on February 28^th at 12 noon at the Urban League and we would love for you to attend. Below are pictures from Week 1.

Customer Contact Center Promotes Four!!!

Total Outsourced Systems (TOS)  and the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati (ULGC) are pleased and excited to announce the promotion of four team members at the ULGC's Customer Contact Center (CCC). Employees receiving promotions include:

Kijia Lovette:  Promoted to Team Manager.  Her new role will be to manage the team and work closely with CCC Senior Account Manager Debra Millage to continue her growth by learning how and when to communicate with Kroger and increase her management knowledge and skills.  This will help prepare her for a Supervisor position in the future.

Terrill Coleman:  Promoted to Queue Specialist.  Terrill will be responsible for the Special Request and Shipping Notification queue.  He will also be responsible for providing feedback to agents when he finds opportunities for improvement in the cases he handles.  This will help prepare him for a Team Lead position in the future.

Kathryn Chapel:  Promoting to Queue Specialist.  Kathryn will be responsible for the In Progress queue and other queues as needed and will also provide feedback to the agents.  This will help prepare her for a Team Lead position in the future.

Denisha Shemwell:  Promoted to Queue Specialist.  Denisha will be responsible for the Kroger email box where shipping notifications are sent.  She will place those notifications in the case and call the store and the customer with updates.  Denisha will also help in the other queues as needed.  This will help prepare her for a Team Lead position in the future.

The CCC currently employes 16 indivuduals from the Avondale community. All the employees of TOS  at the CCC are working on a contract with The Kroger Company.  The ULGC and TOS plan on expanding the number of employees working at the CCC to over 100 jobs in the next 18 months.

Uptown Consortium Partners with the Urban League to Promote Job Growth

Note: This article orginally was featured on SoapboxMedia.com, and is reprinted with the permission of author Brittany York's permission

 

Uptown Consortium, an organization dedicated to building up and revitalizing the neighborhoods of uptown Cincinnati, currently has about $700 million worth of development that has been completed, is underway or will be completed in the next 12 months, says Beth Robinson, president and CEO of the nonprofit.

“We were looking for a way we could reach out to the residents and make sure they’re participating in the economic and development boom here in Uptown,” Robinson says.

So the organization partnered with the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati to sponsor and modify sections of its SOAR Program and Construction Connections apprenticeship.

Robinson says the Urban League’s programs are a perfect fit because they have high job-placement rates for their graduates and are also located in Uptown.

“A few years ago, we did some work in this area and did a session with HR representatives from the big institutions up here—an informational session—and from that, we learned job readiness is something that our residents here who are out of work could really benefit from," she says.

To help address that issue, SOAR, which is a three-week program that provides training in areas like resume writing, interviewing and employer expectations, will help to prepare Uptown residents and then help them gain employment.

Once participants complete SOAR, they are encouraged to take part in the Construction Connections program if they show an interest in the trade. Through the eight-week program, participants learn the basic skills needed to secure employment. “Urban League is great because they have working relationships for job placement with all the big construction companies in town,” Robinson says.

Uptown Consortium is looking at its sponsorship of the two programs as a pilot project, but Robinson says she’s confident that it will be successful. If all goes as planned, about 25 Uptown residents will go from unemployed to employed in the coming months, with 15 of those residents working on the construction and developments in their community that will improve livability and promote place-making.

“We’re really excited,” Robinson says. “We feel like it really adds value for Uptown residents.”

Do Good: 

• Learn more about SOAR and similar programs by visiting the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati's website.

• Keep up with all the news from Uptown Cincinnati by liking its page on Facebook.

• Be a part of community building in Uptown by checking out the events happening in the area.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia. 

Urban League Announces its 2013 Lions

The Urban League of Greater Cincinnati is proud to announce its 19th class of Lions.  This year's honorees include Susan Upton Farley, Rev. H.L. Harvey, Barbara Smitherman and Kitty Strauss.  A short biography and photo will be available next week.

Each year the Urban League holds it "Glorifying the Lions Presentation" as part of its annual meeting luncheon.  The annual meeting will be held, from 11:30-1:30 p.m., Friday, February 8, 2013, at the downtown Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Lions may be nominated by any individual, company or organization in the Greater Cincinnati area.  To be considered for the award, individuals must have demonstrated a commitment to serving families and individuals in the community.  This includes distinguished leaders who have changed the face of Cincinnati by their words, actions and deeds.  It also includes lesser know people outside of the "usual achievers" who readily come to mind. Nominiees include a next-door-neighbor, a church member, or former classmate, all who have made a difference in the lives of families and individuals in the community.

Tickets for the event can be purchased by visiting the Urban League website at www.gcul.org.

Urban League SBDC Wins Two State Awards

Congratulations to the Ohio Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati which took home not one but TWO peer recognition awards for outstanding performance during the past year!   The awards were given out November 27, 2012, at a ceremony in Dublin, Ohio. The first accolade went to the Center itself when it won the "2012 Ecomic Impact Award for Overall High Performance by a District."  The Urban League's SBDC is part of District 5 in Ohio, that also includes two other SBDCs, one at BizTech in Hamilton, and the other at the Clermont Chamber of Commerce.

In addition, Shelia Mixon, Director of the SBDC and Vice President of Entrepreneurship at the Urban League received the "Collaboration Award" that recognizes the top individual in the state who creates and strengthens a collaborative relationship of partnerships with other organizations with a goal of gorowing businesses in the communities they represent.

"We won the "Economic Impact Award" as a district because we do a good job  of making sure we achieve all of the goals established for the year.  If one SBDC is falling a bit short in its piece of the goals, the other two centers pick up the slack and together we do what is needed to provide the resouces businesses in the community require to thrive and grow."

Dixon herself was actually nominted twice for the "Colaboration Award" for two different projects.  She won for helping to bring a new SBDC to the region in Warren County.

On her personal award Dixon remarked, "We identified a need in the community for an additional SBDC.  BizTech in Hamilton used the Jobs Act to create a pilot program there, and when it the new SBDC opens in January there will be 23 organizations in the Country partnering with the Center to provide the same high quality of services the other three SBDCs in the district are already providing."