Job seekers speak with representatives from several area businesses at the "Employment: Expanding Our Opportunities" job fair.

Toni Simmons believes in second chances. As a trainer for Goodwill’s Employability and Life Skills program at the Sarpy County Probation Center, Toni works to help people on probation find their place in the workforce. Participants work with Toni on life skills training, preparing resumes, mock interviews, and searching for jobs. After employment has been found, they continue to follow-up with her to assure the new job is going smoothly.

As another resource for her participants, Toni helped organize the “Employment: Expanding Our Opportunities” job fair on Wednesday, May 16.

She organized the event to be held at the probation center so she could observe the participants’ interactions with employers. Even if the participants didn’t land a job from Wednesday’s job fair, Toni can help them learn from the experience and continue to build job skills.

The job fair brought employers Sitel, Job Source USA, West, Hilton, Gallup and Creighton University. LaQuela Weathers, the “Coupon Queen,” offered advice on using coupons and checking store sales to save money. In just two hours, 71 job seekers made their way through the fair.

KETV stopped by and talked to a couple job seekers. Learn more about some of them at KETV.com.

We’re proud to count Tierra Scott in our ranks here at Goodwill Omaha. Tierra came to us as a Partnership participant looking to turn her life around, and now she’s one of our Adult Career Specialists helping people in the Omaha area get back into the workforce.

Tierra was featured in a Goodwill Industries International “My Story” podcast earlier this week, talking about her path from being a directionless youth to a successful professional.

I had started hanging with the wrong crowds and my mother saw that it was only going to lead me to a life failure. She sat me down, talked to me and told me I need to get myself together and really figure out what I want my life to be. I didn’t know what I really wanted to do, but I figured I needed to do something.

When I first came to Goodwill, I was unemployed. My case manger Kristin and other staff members stayed on me making sure I was doing what I needed to do; it kind of felt like having an extended family. Kristin took the time to get to know me and what I liked to figure out what areas I would be successful in.

I completed the program in 2008 and was excited since I had successfully completed training, work experience, and found permanent employment. I felt my life was going in the right direction and had stayed in contact with Kristin. I continued to go see her every so often but about six months later I found myself unemployed and felt like I was back to square one. I collected unemployment, but it was running out. I remembered my friend Kristin…

Listen to or read the rest of Tierra’s story at goodwill.org.

The green industry is expanding rapidly, often creating more job opportunities than there are qualified applicants. Yet as this jobs explosion takes place, many women continue to work within traditionally female-dominated industries, typically with much fewer prospects for growth and advancement. To address this disparity, the U.S. Department of Labor’s released “Why green is your color: A woman’s guide to a sustainable career” (PDF – 16 mb), a 128-page collection of industry overviews, education info, labor research, job search help, entrepreneurship guidance, external references and other tips.

Leading off the guide is a list of seven reasons why green jobs are good for women:

Reason 1: A green job can provide the chance to earn more. The study reports that women continue to be concentrated in traditionally female occupations, which both stunts earning potential and isolates them from emerging green jobs.

Construction carpenter is a green occupation projected to have 325,400 job openings from 2008-2018. Carpenters, 98 percent of whom are men, earned a median wage of $18.98 an hour in 2009. In contrast, preschool teachers, 98 percent of whom are women, earned $11.80 an hour. With these wages, a preschool teacher would have to work 24 more hours per week to earn the same amount as a carpenter.

Reason 2: You can start with any skill level and move along a career path. While having a college education can open up additional opportunities, the lack of a degree does not prevent women from developing and rising through the green jobs ranks.

Green jobs provide opportunities to advance from low-skill, entry-level positions to high-skill, higher-paying jobs. For example, an entry-level worker might gain hands-on experience by assisting a more experienced worker while working toward a certificate. After a few years of work and further training, she can advance to both higher-level responsibilities and higher pay. This path is an opportunity for a woman who hasn’t attended college.

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Environmentally friendly construction is often associated with new buildings, creatively efficient floorplans and exotic, space-age building materials — but sometimes, the most environmentally friendly solution is to use what we already have.

GOOD Magazine has a new article online about the environmental-friendliness of renovating old buildings. GOOD cites new research from the National Trust for Historic Preservation (PDF – 10.7 MB), which concludes “…that building reuse almost always offers environmental savings over demolition and new construction.” This ties in nicely with YouthBuild Omaha’s new partnership and commitment to environmental responsibility!

While previously, YouthBuild Omaha worked only with Habitat for Humanity to build new homes for local families, the program has also recently partnered with the Abide Network, a local organization committed to transforming and restoring urban neighborhoods and communities through home ownership. Environmental friendliness isn’t an explicit part of Abide’s mission, but sometimes great goals converge.

Abide Network buys condemned homes in North Omaha for an average of about $5,000 per home. Volunteers like the YouthBuild participants donate their time to renovate these homes. The majority of materials are also donated. The homes are then sold to low-income families at zero-percent interest.

Miriam Blair, YouthBuild program coordinator, shared the story of YouthBuild Omaha’s first meeting with Abide Network Executive Director Ron Dotzler in this month’s Clothes Line, which included a presentation on the organization’s goals and methods.

He showed them a large map of North Omaha, where red push pins identified violent crimes in the community over a five-year time span. Many of the students gasped in amazement, as there wasn’t even a hint of white shining through.

Mr. Dotzler went on to explain the importance of home ownership in a crime ridden community. “When people own their homes they take pride in their neighborhoods, which in turn leads to less crime,” he said.

He then showed them another map very similar to the first, with one colossal exception — due to the home renovations they’d done, a community nestled in the middle of the first map only had three violent crimes committed in the last year.

Abide itself is housed in a renovated home in North Omaha — the building was refurbished using donated materials, including paneling in the living room from an old bowling alley, tables from a Burger King, and parts of pews from an old church.

With the right selection of materials and processes, renovating single-family homes can result in 10-35% reduction in environmental impact when measuring factors like resource depletion and human health effects. And it can save and strengthen communities too!

Marshal and Cassie at Dancing with the Omaha Stars / photo courtesy of Rod Rabe

By day, Marshal Rabe is one of the 26 Work Experience students at Goodwill’s Retail Operations Center, learning problem solving, independence, and various tasks around the facility. But by night, Marshal is a world-champion ballroom dancer!

Marshal and his dance partner Cassie Lacy were featured performers at the Omaha Ballroom’s “Dancing with the Omaha Stars” event on January 14. Marshal and Cassie danced a waltz during intermission, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd and some perfect 10 scores from the panel of judges.

Marshal has been dancing all his life. His family owns the Rabe Dance Studio in Omaha, where Marshal has trained since childhood. He is a Country Western Dance World Champion, and he teaches Hip-Hop Dance at the Rabe Dance Studio.

He and Cassie met at a play production and have been dancing together ever since. Like Marshal, Cassie has Down syndrome, and she too has been dancing all her life. In addition to the Waltz, the two also perform Tango, Swing and Cha-Cha numbers.

Marshal began working with Goodwill’s Work Experience Program in August of 2011. WE Trainer Sarah Lorsung Tvrdik said that Marshal currently works on sorting and bundling shoes, which has been his favorite task so far. Throughout the course of the year, he will also work in the e-waste / computer recycling, clerical, production, custodial, contracts and retail departments.

“He enjoys interacting with the other students and has a good sense of humor,” Sarah said.

In addition to working at the ROC, Marshal also maintains a part-time job at the Garden Café.

Congratulations Marshal. Keep up the great work, and keep on dancing!

UPDATE! – Jan 23 WOWT Channel 6 ran a story on Marshal over the weekend! In addition to getting to know Marshal and Cassie better, you can see the two in action from last week’s Dancing with the Omaha Stars event.

ANOTHER UPDATE! – Jan 27 Marshal and Cassie are both featured in a video at Kirstie Alley’s 100DaysofDance.com! Scroll down to the bottom under “Featured Videos.”