South Central Workforce Development Board credits city-supported navigator with thousands of job referrals for New Americans

The South Central Workforce Development Board on Jan. 21 reported to the Bowling Green Board of Commission that a New American navigator funded jointly by the city and Warren County has generated thousands of referrals and extensive employer outreach since it was continued with local funds.

"We were able to submit and receive grant funding... and we wrote into that grant a New American navigator position," John Swords, president and CEO of the South Central Workforce Development Board, said, describing the role the position played after the December 2021 tornado. "We approached Jeff Meisel and Judge Executive Gorman about the idea of continuing that position with joint funding from both the city and the county. Both were agreeable."

The board said the navigator role, hired in March 2022 under tornado-relief grant funds, was extended with city and county support for an 18-month period; the board reported it is 12 months into that local funding commitment. Brian Becker, who led the presentation, said the navigator and a team of assistants ran language-specific workshops and job fairs and provided case management and employer outreach.

"We had 1,000 people come to workshops," Becker said, and the board noted job fair attendance figures of about 350 jobseekers, 13 employers and about 600 referrals generated from that fair. Becker said services were provided in Spanish, Swahili and English and that referral counts include multiple applications placed per individual. He added that some employers the board supports, such as Tyson, reported being fully staffed following the program’s outreach.

Becker said the board also produced a multilingual resource card, the job seeker map (JobseekerMap.com), and that outreach included partnerships with the International Center’s employment team and local chambers and employers to smooth hiring pipelines. The board said it has placed staff with both subsidized and unpaid interns through WIOA (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act) funds to support navigation and intake.

Commissioners asked how the board could route jobseekers to services sooner. Becker said community leaders’ referrals, language-accessible materials and an on-the-ground team have helped, but he urged continued employer engagement and systems-level changes. "We’re speaking up about how to create systems change to improve it," he said, noting the board’s participation in a state-level workforce recruitment and attraction task force.

The presentation closed with the board asking the commission to maintain funding through the agreed local support period and with the board offering to provide further updates.

The report included the board's request that local funding continue through June (the current local funding commitment runs through that period), and commissioners did not take action on additional funding during the Jan. 21 meeting.