Brooklyn's Progress
October 2004

On Sep. 23, the Council of the City of New York Committee on Economic Development held a hearing on "Oversight – Adult Workforce Initiatives Under the Department of Small business Services:  One Year Later."  Brooklyn Chamber President Kenneth Adams was out of town attending the Business Council of New York State Annual Meeting.  The following testimony was submitted on his behalf:

My name is Kenneth Adams, President of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, a business assistance and economic development organization with over 1,200 members.  The mission of the Brooklyn Chamber is to help businesses grow and to promote the economic development of Brooklyn.  To that end, the Brooklyn Chamber advocates for projects that create jobs and stimulate investment in the borough’s economy.  I am also a member of the NYC Workforce Investment Board (WIB).  I am pleased to provide testimony regarding the progress that the Department of Small Business Services (SBS) has made since it incorporated the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) funded programs a little over a year ago.

A great deal has happened over the past year and I am happy to acknowledge the many workforce-related accomplishments SBS has achieved under the leadership of Commissioner Robert Walsh and the rest of his staff.  Several milestones have been achieved this year including:

The full merging of the former Department of Employment into SBS, and a complete transference of WIA funds to the Workforce Division of SBS.

The selection of Deputy Commission for Workforce Development David Margalit, who brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the position.

The creation of One-Stop Centers in each borough dedicated to providing NYC adult job seekers with comprehensive employment and training programs designed to increase their employability.

The attainment of statewide certification of NYC’s One-Stop System by the NYS Workforce Investment Board, which has enabled NYC to access additional funding under WIA for such things as incumbent worker training programs.

The rollout of industry and employer specific employment and training initiatives, such as the Atlantic Terminal retail project in Downtown Brooklyn and the Mandarin Hotel staffing project in Manhattan, that have enabled SBS to work with new employers to create job opportunities for local residents. 

And finally, the creation of Business Solutions Centers (BSCs) in each borough as part of the City’s One-Stop System to facilitate direct access to business and workforce services by NYC’s small business community.

It is on this last point, the creation of the BSCs, in which the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce has directly participated as a partner with SBS and the City’s One-Stop system.

Started in August of 2003 as a pilot project, the BSC was developed as a partnership between SBS and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. The BSC provides small and mid-sized companies and new entrepreneurs with easy access to a range of services including: business planning and development; access to financing and incentive programs; access to procurement opportunities; information, marketing and promotional assistance and referral services for other types of business services.  The success of the BSC during its first year of operation was unprecedented, with over 530 businesses and entrepreneurs accessing various levels of assistance.

With the merging of WIA programs into SBS, the agency saw an opportunity to expand the scope of services under the BSC’s to include workforce assitance, thereby creating a more comprehensive approach to helping small and mid-sized companies looking to expand.  Such a vision acknowledged that effective workforce development is an important component of any economic development stategy that focused on small business growth. 

With this vision in mind, SBS announced the creation of a BSC in each borough that would be affliated with the One-Stop Centers.  In Brooklyn, SBS continued its partnership with the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, and we recently rolled out an expanded BSC located at 9 Bond Street in Downtown Brooklyn.  Included in this model is both an effective linkage to the job seeker services currently being administered by Goodwill Industries, but also the incorporation of the Brooklyn Chamber’s highly successful employment staffing service called Good Help.  Good Help is a demand-driven employment model that focuses on the company as the primary customer, and seeks to effectively link the company to public workforce system for the purpose of finding the right employee.  Under the BSC model and co-located within the One-Stop Center, Good Help will enable the One-Stop System to fully realize its WIA mandate to service the business customer.  In fact, we believe by partnering with the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce in this endeavour, SBS has created an unprecedented opportunity to encourage more small businesses to utilize the public workforce system.

Such a vision has the potential to be a model for how adult workforce services can truly be become a part of successful economic development strategy.  While much of the new job growth in Brooklyn over the next five years will be tied to large economic development projects such as re-zoning of Downtown Brooklyn, the opening of Steiner Studios at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the creation of a Cruise Ship Terminal in Red Hook, the opening of stores like IKEA and Fairway, the creation of the BSC’s addresses the need to promote small business growth, and in turn, expand employment opportunities at the neighborhood level. 

Over a year ago, I testified in favor of the merging of the Department of Employment’s programs into SBS as a means to faclitate the effective coordination between workforce and economic development.  Today, as we examine the results of this merger one year later, it is clear that we have already made tremendous progress.  The various initiatives undertaken by SBS, especially the expansion of the BSC model, have already begun to pay tremendous dividends within Brooklyn and throughout NYC as a whole.  With this in mind, we look forward to working with the City Council and SBS in an effort to further build upon this success.