#Powerofajob: Agency staff give voice to their customers’ pain and joy

By Employment Security Department
Commissioner Suzi LeVine

True job-search success stories about real Washingtonians are as numerous as the leaves on a 100-year-old tree in summer. To be exact, the number of WorkSource customers who found jobs in 12 months from late 2016 to early 2017 (our most recent data) is 139,212.

But those thousands of stories don’t just drift lazily down and into the lap of this blog. We rely on our employees to share their customers’ successes, and then we relay those Power of a Job stories to you: our readers.

To keep those stories coming every week, sometimes we need to go shake the trees and remind our staff to send more. So last fall, I decided to provide a little incentive. I asked my staff for submissions and we randomly selected five stories to feature as the winners! Today, I’m pleased to announce those winning stories. Three of them already have been published here:

The other two winning stories haven’t been published yet, but I’ll give you a preview.

A second employee from WorkSource Spokane tells the story of a homeless man struggling with alcoholism and a felony history. He took some pre-employment classes at WorkSource, worked with community partners to find housing and help for his addiction, then came back to WorkSource for help finding a job. He did, and returned to WorkSource Spokane later just to tell everyone how well he’s doing!

The final story comes from an employee of WorkSource Colville, who worked with a woman who had served time in a California prison for cutting off the fingers of a man who had sexually abused one of her relatives. This woman served her time and was a model prisoner. After release, she struggled for years to reintegrate into society. She finally found not only support and compassion at WorkSource Colville, but also quality job referrals. As of today, she’s working and already has received a promotion!

I’m so proud to lead the Employment Security Department, where stand-out employees transform people’s lives every day through the power of a job and the safety net of unemployment benefits.

Thanks to them, you get to hear these stories. All you need to do is follow this blog or find us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or LinkedIn: #powerofajob!

As a partner in Washington’s WorkSource system and the American Job Center Network, the Employment Security Department helps people — unemployed or not — find new jobs and learn new skills. We help them experience the life-changing Power of a Job. We also work with businesses, which are Powered by Jobs, to help them find employees.

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Originally published at washingtonesd.wordpress.com on January 30, 2019.