Press Release
October 23, 2003

The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce announced on October 23, 2003, that it has been selected by the United States Chamber of Commerce as a national demonstration site for Workforce Innovation Networks (WINs) to promote increased hiring by small to mid-sized Brooklyn businesses through the public workforce development system.

WINs is a national partnership that works with employer organizations on cutting-edge workforce development solutions to meet the needs of their member firms for employees at the entry-level and above.

“Hiring, training, and retaining qualified employees is a top priority for almost every business owner,” said Beth B. Buehlmann, executive director of the U.S. Chamber’s Center for Workforce Preparation.  “The Brooklyn Chamber’s success can be a learning tool for other local chambers that want to have the same kind of bottom-line impact for their members and local workers.”  

The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce joins six local chambers across the U.S. and 14 other Workforce Innovation Networks partners who each received a grant of $130,000 for the next two years to help improve workforce systems, provide targeted training and services, and improve the hiring and promotion of workers with multiple barriers to successful employment.

“Workforce development must be effectively integrated with economic development,” said Kenneth Adams, President of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.  “Being selected by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as a WINs national demonstration site is confirmation that we are on the right track here in Brooklyn – coordinating our business development programs with Good Help and other workforce development initiatives.”

The Brooklyn Chamber’s program will seek to expand its capacity to offer more employer services, collect and analyze local labor market information with a focus on Brooklyn and promote increased hiring through the public workforce development system and the Chamber’s own Good Help staffing service.

Since 1998, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce has provided Good Help, a free employment service that links small and mid-sized employers in Brooklyn with the many facets of the public workforce system.  Since its inception, the program has helped over 500 companies hire more than 750 employees.  Beginning last year, the Chamber expanded its workforce services to include helping businesses to access government hiring incentives, collecting and analyzing Brooklyn labor market information and working with the NYS Department of Labor to help companies prevent layoffs or manage the process more effectively.  Last April, the Brooklyn Chamber partnered with Long Island University to host a borough-wide job fair that brought together over 70 companies with 1,200 unemployed job seekers.

“Our goal is to create a workforce center that is connected to the publicly funded workforce system,” Randolph Peers, executive director of Workforce Development for the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, said.  “Effectively engaging small and mid-sized businesses, increasing their access to workforce related services and promoting their involvement in developing employer-driven workforce development strategies will all be priorities for the Brooklyn Chamber under this initiative.”

The Center for Workforce Preparation, established in 1990, is a nonprofit affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that develops workforce strategies for businesses, chambers of commerce, and communities to hire, train, retain and advance skilled workers in the 21st century.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation representing more than three million businesses, 3,000 state and local chambers, 830 business associations and 92 American Chambers of Commerce abroad.