There was a great mix of employers, small businesses, and job seekers at Wednesday’s What Works event in Williams Lake.
Coordinator, Anne Burrill said eight different ideas got some traction following a panel of local employers who shared success stories and keynote speaker Kristi Fraiholm Mader from Vancouver Island who spoke about social enterprise and the opportunities for bridging employment for people with barriers.
“It was interesting because there were some really tangible ideas that came up around how do help support employers around HR practices and some of the challenges that they face,” she said.
“And then some really great ideas as well around providing different other kinds of employment opportunities for people who maybe can’t work full-time or have different kinds of challenges.”
Burrill who is also the coordinator of the Thrive Williams Lake Poverty Reduction Project said she will now help with the followup of the event and generate a report about what happened and the outcomes of the event.
“I”m really excited to look at the notes from those conversations and see what comes out of it,” she said.
“We also can help to pull people together to keep working on the ideas that were generated.”
Economic Development Officer for the City of Williams Lake, Beth Veenkamp said she hopes the business community is getting the message that everybody is working together to try and solve the labor issues the community is encountering including a shortage of skilled and unskilled professional labor in all segments of industry and business.
“We have a poverty simulation event coming up in April and then we’re working towards a community strategy around poverty reduction,” Burrill added.
“All of the work that we’re doing over these events is bringing the community together to generate a strategy and start implementing it so we can have a community that is great for everybody.”