Friday, April 26, 2024
Katy Offutt
FORWARD TRAINING CENTER
Katy Offutt is executive director of Forward Training Center Hood County.
With my upcoming columns, I will take you through some of Forward’s milestones of growth, spotlight successes of life-changing stories from our graduates and distinguish how we are a unique stand-alone educational facility — and give you a glimpse into our future vision.
The time came for Forward Center of Hood County to expand to a larger facility. We were excited to be able to relocate the center to the historic GISD building on Pearl Street.
To repurpose the existing building into a facility that would accommodate the classroom needs of our growing programs, a capital fundraising campaign was necessary.
Our "Community in Unity" campaign became our first milestone of achievement. We credit Julia Pannell, a valued volunteer, with the idea to involve the Hood County community. To quote Julia, "Let's make it fun and rewarding!" What transpired was an outpouring of love, hours of volunteer time, donated services, materials, and dollars which resulted in a job skills training educational center.
As growth continues, the staff, board members and volunteer teams continue this same approach to reach out and unite with other nonprofits, churches, and businesses to utilize all available resources.
Forward provides a faith-based educational job and life skills training program that prepares students to aspire to their desired career goals. While not duplicating the resources of any other agency, the staff reaches out to engage and partner with all available opportunities.
While taking free classes from resume writing, mastering interview skills, to learning an elevator speech to favorable impressions for interviews, each student also experiences how to handle conflict resolutions on the job, work ethics and how to implement reliability, integrity, respect, and on-the-job appreciation becomes one of the major characteristic roles taught and learned.
Forward uses a proven curriculum from a national organization: Jobs for Life, headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. Today our core programs include the "Powered for Life" youth program, ages 3-18, and our "Jobs for Life" adult program for ages 18 and older. The outcomes of these programs will help build a workforce of qualified employees who will become future community leaders.
ENROLL FOR FALL CLASSES
Jobs for Life Sept. 20 through Nov. 10 (Registration ends Sept. 9).
This program includes teachings of fundamental principles of work, financial literacy, resume writing, mock interviews and a plan to reach desired career goal.
Classes will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.
Additional classes are Computer Basics, E-mail 101/Internet, Windows 10/MS Office, Microsoft Word 2016, Microsoft, Excel 2016, QuickBooks Basic, GED, and ESL.
Don’t forget to check out our new career opportunities, CAD (pre-requisite JFL program), and Cisco Networking Academy open to the public.
A complete class schedule can be found on our website (forwardtrainingcenter.org). You can also stop by 600 W. Pearl St. or call 817 573-6677.
COMMUNITY AWARENESS SERIES
Lunch and Learns three-part series “Bridging the Way to the Next Generation” (11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.)
Sept. 21 — Traci Cooper-Ives “The Journey Starts at Home, “Bridging the Gap between Adults and Children”
Oct.19 — Ryan Ray from Jobs for Life Headquarters in Raleigh, N.C. “Setting the Direction for Future Generations”
Nov. 16 — Dr. Calvin Lawrence, “Bless the Tie that Binds”
Location: Forward Training Center, 600 W. Pearl St. Building B.
Register online or call 817 573-6677.
SCHEDULE A TOUR
A scheduled tour will give you a firsthand look at the transformation and dedicated rooms and spaces to those who responded to participate in our “Community in Unity” campaign. Call 817-573-6677 and ask for Katy.
Follow our journey to discover another milestone. In my next article, we will reveal a huge announcement – one you will not want to miss!
katy@forwardtrainingcenter.org | 817-219-5655
