Already reinvented, the South Central Workforce Development Board is now rebranded.

The workforce board, which has undergone many changes and hired its first full-time employee in recent months, approved Thursday a new website and social media strategy presented by board President and CEO Robert Boone.

Developed by vendor Werkshop Branding, the website includes a new workforce board logo, links to the board’s social media accounts, and information and statistics that can be used by job seekers and employers throughout the 10 counties served by the board.

The logo, which includes an outline of the 10-county region on a map of the state as a backdrop, is already in use on board documents. But the website is only now being launched.

“I was pleased with what Werkshop came up with,” said Boone, who was hired in July as the board’s first full-time executive. “It’s easy to navigate and easy to update and change.”

The website, which can be found at www.southcentral workforce.com when it goes live, will include a link to another recent innovation: a new nonprofit foundation that supports the work of the workforce board.

Boone said the foundation, which became his employer of record in January, is changing its name from the SCKY Foundation for Workforce Development to KenovaWorks.

In explaining the new name, Boone said it was derived from the foundation’s location in Kentucky, its goal of innovation and the organization’s purpose of workforce development.

“I didn’t want it to sound governmental,” Boone said of the foundation that will be concerned primarily with procuring grants and private donations. “I think the new branding will help our investors know that we’re concerned with taking this to the next level.”

Such changes also further distance the workforce board from a recent history that saw the board have to return unused workforce development funds to the state. More than $230,000 was returned in 2014, and $340,000 would have been returned in 2016 if not for some last-minute efforts from the board to have that funding rolled over to the next fiscal year.

The board receives about $1.7 million annually in federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act funds. Current service provider ResCare Workforce Services, which replaced the Barren River Area Development District after the board terminated that vendor’s contract in 2016, appears to be on target to spend the funds and deliver the services required by the board.

Erin Ballou, assistant chief financial officer for the city of Bowling Green and the workforce board’s current fiscal agent, reported Thursday that $681,773 remains to be spent in the fiscal year that ends June 30. With money earmarked for adult, youth and dislocated worker programs, Ballou said: “I’m pretty confident the money will be spent by the end of June.”

ResCare Project Director Hilton Isable expressed similar confidence as he presented statistics showing that 8,318 individual visits have been made to the Kentucky Career Centers in Bowling Green and Glasgow since last July. He also reported that ResCare has placed 283 people in jobs since July and placed another 149 in training.

“From all indications, it appears that ResCare is ahead of where we have been in prior years when it comes to individuals served and referrals of qualified job applicants to potential employers,” said Ron Sowell, chairman of the workforce board. “The board is encouraged that our funds are being used efficiently and effectively across the region and that, unlike two years ago, none of our funding is at risk of being forfeited for failure to expend by certain federal and state deadlines.”

Boone pointed out that not only the WIOA funds but some additional grant funding is being utilized. He reported that the nonprofit foundation has received $15,000 in private investment and a $20,000 grant from the state for a high school career pathways initiative.

Boone also pointed out that Isable’s figures showed that 193 visits had been made to the workforce board’s affiliate sites throughout the region since January.

Lori Strumpf of Washington, D.C.-based Strumpf Associates, who is working for the board under a $72,800 contract for the 2018 calendar year, reported that 14 affiliate sites have now been established and that she is continuing to work on establishing a site in Metcalfe County.

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