News from ECG’s Office of Economic & Community Development
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Access to Opportunity
L End-of-Year
2023
See inside how Crisp County solved the childcare crisis for its workforce.
Kelley Bush LaGrange
Shelley Zorn Thomasville
TC3 and an artificial intelligence lab
aGrange and Thomasville are bridging school-to-work with initiatives that will benefit their communities’ workforce for decades. “Workforce development is an ecosystem. We consider workforce development to include attainable housing, transportation, early childhood education and training. Equitable access is key - to all of those components” says Kelley Bush, Director of Workforce Development and Existing Industry with the Development Authority of LaGrange. Access is the great equalizer and some struggle for access. According to Beth Weigensberg, workforce researcher, in a Q&A with the *Brookings Institution, individuals that are often considered “hard-to-serve” are unwittingly left out. For example those who are homeless, formerly incarcerated, lowincome, and youth disconnected from school and employment often find it difficult to access existing initiatives within the eco-system. Availability is not accessibility. “In our initial school-to-work beta program in 2019, we uncovered tremendous barriers for the economically disadvantaged and vulnerable students in our community,” explains Bush. Enter the Troup County Career Center (TC3) serving credit-deficient students at risk of not successfully graduating from high school. The goal
is for these students to have access to the technological resources and pathways offered at the local college and career academy. Access is opportunity also in South Georgia. Members of the Georgia Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing (Georgia AIM) team from Georgia Tech met with Imagine Thomasville and local Thomasville manufacturers and business leaders in fall 2023 to discuss how AIM grants could accelerate the transition to automation in manufacturing. With that, Southern Regional Technical College (SRTC) announced the creation of a new precision machining and manufacturing lab on the Thomasville campus to open in the fall of 2024. The lab will host two new programs, including precision machining and manufacturing engineering technology. These are programs that provide new bridges for school-to-work Georgians. “A lab for precision manufacturing at SRTC breathes innovation into existing industry, fueling their growth and ensuring a trained workforce is ready,” clarifies Shelley Zorn, Imagine Thomasville Executive Director with the Thomasville Payroll Development Authority. The leaders in Thomasville and LaGrange are operating along the same continuum, access to opportunity for meaningful work and successful living. *Brookings Institution is a non-profit American think tank that conducts research and education in the global economy and economic development.