MOBILE WORKS INC. RECEIVES ALABAMA WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT 'GOVERNOR'S PARTNERS IN PROGRESS' AWARD
Friday, Oct 20th, 2006

MOBILE, Alabama - October 20, 2006 - Sydney Raine, President of Mobile Works Inc., announced that Mobile Works recently received the 'Governor's Partners In Progress' award from the State of Alabama Workforce Development Division for work in both securing $1,892,574 in national emergency grant monies from the U.S. Department of Labor to provide temporary jobs for the City of Mobile, Mobile County and other municipalities within the county of Mobile for Hurricane Katrina disaster relief���and in using the monies to quickly implement actual jobs for Mobile area workers.

The 'Governor's Partners in Progress' award was presented to Raine on behalf of Mobile Works by Dr. Tim Alford, Director of Workforce Development for the State of Alabama, on Thursday, October 12, 2006. Dr. Alford presented the award to Raine at a ceremony held at the State of Alabama Workforce Development Conference, which was held from October 11th-13th in Birmingham. The award honors business, government and cultural leaders for making progress in workforce development a priority within their organizations and within their local Alabama communities.

Under Raine's leadership, Mobile Works staff worked quickly with officials from the City of Mobile, Mobile County and several other municipalities in Mobile County to secure their agreement to provide jobs to local workers to aid in hurricane cleanup. Within a couple weeks after notification of receipt of the grant monies, the quick action of Mobile Works ensured that 358 jobs were filled throughout the greater Mobile area���some were manual labor for storm cleanup, but most of the jobs included tasks such as volunteer services coordination, damage estimation, as well as warehouse and clerical support. To date, 65 of those 358 employees are still at work; and of the 293 people who are not still working under the NEG grant, over 67% have gone on to full-time positions with local and regional businesses.

"I am honored and privileged to accept this award on behalf of Mobile Works, because this 'Governor's Partners in Progress' award really recognizes the dedication and hard work of the Mobile Works staff and the spirit of cooperation given to us by the City of Mobile, Mobile County and our other local municipalities," said Raine. "They were truly our partners in this endeavor and the real winners were the jobseekers. We look forward to continued partnership with every entity involved."

About Mobile Works
Mobile Works Inc., a local partnership of business, education, labor and community leaders, provides businesses with training, leadership, labor market information and employment programs designed to stimulate local business by meeting the needs of Mobile area businesses while increasing the available labor pool of skilled jobseekers in the Mobile area. Since its inception in 2000, the group has invested more than $28 million overall to support Mobile area job and educational programs. In addition, in the 2006-2007 fiscal year alone, Mobile Works has invested nearly $4.6 million dollars in jobs, training and economic initiatives for all of Mobile County.

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