The Manufacturers Association of the Southern Tier hosted a manufacturing and workforce opportunities roundtable discussion, Thursday at the Artone Company’s building located at 1089 Allen Street. Attending the discussion were representatives from the Chautauqua County Striders, Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office, The Resource Center, the National League of Cities, MAST, the United States Department of Labor, the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities, and other local and national companies.

Discussions revolved around how to deal with an aging and dwindling workforce population to meet the growing demand for not only highly skilled workers in the area, but how to also fill the rank-and-file of vacated positions across Chautauqua County and Jamestown.

“The grand challenge for Jamestown is connecting residents with good paying jobs and connecting all employers to skilled workers,” said Todd Tranum, executive director for MAST.

To meet this objective, Tranum explained how the Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy, which was also part of Thursday’s roundtable, is hoping to help Jamestown reach its goals. The academy includes 16 cities working through 2023-24 to find solutions and best practices, he said.

Jon Clark, a correctional officer with the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office, attended the roundtable discussion Thursday, hosted by the Manufacturers Association of the Southern Tier. As previously reported by The Post-Journal, law enforcement agencies nationwide are suffering from a shortage of qualified applicants as are several local manufacturing companies.

Another program, Tranum highlighted, is the Dream it. Do it. Advanced Manufacturing Program.

According to didiwny.com, the program provides a pipeline of trained and skilled workforce-ready workers to the various manufacturing employers of western, New York by educating the educators and the community – including earned media (electronic badges), social media and paid advertising, providing stakeholder presentation, teacher/counselor development and the installation of Dream it Do it champions within a school district. Furthermore, the program tries to energize the talent pipeline and provides hands-on manufacturing experiences and opportunities.

“DIDIAMP has 189 enrollees, and more than 200 plus DIDIAMP badges have been earned,” he said. “We’ve also had 12 individuals earn belts. Since 2009 DIDI has facilitated more than 75,000 interactions with students, teachers, counselors and area manufacturers.”

During several of the “breakout discussion sessions” talks revolved around the retainability of employees and the challenges companies face in quelling the revolving door of workers coming in and leaving.

However, The Resource Center has a highly-effective, evidence- based program which Tranum highlighted.

“Let’s face it, taking care of our employees usually revolves around paying for a “1-800 service provider” and we say, … there you go, well that’s not enough anymore. The Resource Center uses the Supporting and Facilitating Employee Relations (SAFER) program,” he said.

SAFER is a program that partners with local businesses to support their employees in maintaining employment by building a personal relationship with a success coach and connecting community resources directly with the employee. The SAFER program reduces turnover rate leading to an increase in budget savings, helps alleviate employee crisis quickly resulting in increased productivity and provides confidential on-site assistance from a caring coach among other things.

So far SAFER has provided 151 employee engagements, impacted 312 people, provided 593 interventions, partnered with 14 local businesses, resolved 169 financial barriers and 96% of those employed remain employed after 90 days.

Also, briefed during the presentation was how Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) affects the county. ALICE is defined as an individual who makes enough money at their job to disqualify them from government assistance but struggles to cover daily expenses. The term was coined by non-profit United Way in its United for ALICE program. It classifies ALICEs as Americans who make more than the Federal Poverty Level of $15,060 for an individual or $31,200 for a family of four but are not able to make ends meet according to unitedforalice.org .

30% of County Residents fall under the definition of ALICE; 18% of Chautauqua County household fall below the national poverty level; household survival budget for two adults and two children in childcare is $5,492 per month or $65,904 annually, according to a MAST Slide.

“While Chautauqua County is experiencing a great opportunity with job expansions and the return of manufacturing, we’ve got to be ready to meet the demand and capitalize on this,” said Tranum.