Located in:
- Program-Specific Requirements for Wagner-Peyser Program (Employment Services)
All Program-Specific Requirements provided for the WIOA core programs in this section must be addressed for either a Unified or Combined State Plan.
- e. Agricultural Outreach Plan (AOP). Each State agency must develop an AOP every four years as part of the Unified or Combined State Plan required under sections 102 or 103 of WIOA. The AOP must include an assessment of need. An assessment need describes the unique needs of farmworkers in the area based on past and projected agricultural and farmworker activity in the State. Such needs may include but are not limited to: employment, training, and housing.
- 4. Outreach Activities
The local offices outreach activities must be designed to meet the needs of MSFWs in the State and to locate and contact MSFWs who are not being reached through normal intake activities. Describe the State agency's proposed strategies for:
- 4. Outreach Activities
- e. Agricultural Outreach Plan (AOP). Each State agency must develop an AOP every four years as part of the Unified or Combined State Plan required under sections 102 or 103 of WIOA. The AOP must include an assessment of need. An assessment need describes the unique needs of farmworkers in the area based on past and projected agricultural and farmworker activity in the State. Such needs may include but are not limited to: employment, training, and housing.
e. 4. A. Contacting farmworkers who are not being reached by the normal intake activities conducted by the employment service offices
Current Narrative:
Arkansas strives to continue improvement interacting with and providing assistance to our MSFW community. Arkansas was designated in October 2023 as a significant MSFW state. Additionally, Forrest City and West Memphis were designated as significant Multilingual One-Stop Centers.
Strategy 1: Hire full-time, bilingual staff for the identified areas with the largest concentration of MSFWs.
ADWS has hired a full-time, bilingual Workforce Specialist for Little Rock and surrounding areas. Although attainment of additional outreach staff has been a challenge, ADWS continues to seek full-time, bilingual Workforce Specialists for Forrest City, West Memphis, Jonesboro, and the surrounding areas. Arkansas United assisted ADWS in efforts to provide awareness of the position being open for a bilingual individual. Arkansas United assists immigrant statewide with various services such as, but not limited to family based legal services as they work towards expanding options for the immigrant communities.
Strategy 2: Strengthen established partnerships as well as develop new partnerships with entities serving MSFWs and domestic workers.
Outreach staff coordinates outreach to workers with the Arkansas Human Development Corporation (AHDC). This provides AHDC the opportunity to meet with the employers, workers, and offer services available under the NFJP. This additionally aided in removing a barrier for the NFJP grantee in meeting workers where it may have been an issue in the past with an employer. The partnership with the Mexican Consulate yielded opportunities for staff to coordinate outreach efforts during an all-day event. The Mexican Consulate sets up an event each month to provide services such as, but not limited to birth certificates and processing passports among other services. ADWS scheduled a mobile unit for this event and provided services such as setting up an Arkansas JobLink account, apply for jobs, and build resumes just to name few. These partnerships demonstrate how coordination and collaboration delivers a wide array of services during one event.
The ADWS Targeted Populations Outreach Coordinator and State Monitor Advocate will seek and establish partnerships with relevant agencies that have not been a part of MSFW efforts, as well as build on partnerships already previously established. Some partnerships include, Arkansas Department of Agriculture, Legal Aid of Arkansas, the Mexican Consulate and various other organizations for the express purposes of identifying other available services for Arkansas' MSFW population.
A new potential partner is UADA-Extension’s Center for Rural Resilience & Workforce Development, which increases the capacity of planning and development districts to serve Rural, Hispanic, and Marshallese communities through culturally relevant program support. In particular, the Center focuses on training and technical assistance, applied research, and dissemination of information. Using workforce development data for targeted outreach, the Center may support increased awareness to community, workforce, and economic development partners state-wide with a regional focus through events offered in Spanish and English.
Partnership information will be incorporated into the training that is provided to our Local Office Outreach staff.
Outreach Staff plan to incorporate the use of appearances at Laundromats and Grocery Stores and other areas where MSFWs congregate. Additionally, we will place information, in Spanish, in area churches and local community buildings to expand our reach beyond our normal employment services offices.
ADWS has secured a mini-mobile unit for use by the MSFW Outreach Specialist. This until will allow full delivery of available services to MSFWs.
Strategy 3: Increase staff and partner awareness regarding identifying MSFWs and the services available to them through WIOA and partner programs.
ADWS will continue providing technical assistance and training to staff on identifying MSFWs and the services available to them such as webinars, office visits, etc. Potential events to assist in increasing awareness would be events such as WIOA Partner Meetings if available.
Strategy 4: Increase employer awareness of services available to them as an employer as well as the services available to MSFWs.
Outreach staff and partner programs will provide technical assistance to the Local Workforce Business Services Teams on the services available to employers and MSFWs. This will provide employers an additional resource for their business as well as their workers. Potential events to assist in increasing awareness would be events catered to employers such as the Arkansas Grown Conference & Expo.
Strategy 5: Use modern technology for awareness and communication with MSFWs.
A call center to assist individuals seeking assistance is underway to expand assistance any individual seeking assistance. Additionally, a vendor has been procured for interpretation services. This service will provide the local offices to expand their communication with non-English speaking individuals in order to best assist them with services and referrals for services. The ADWS website has a web page dedicated to MSFWs and employers on the services available, worker rights, workforce centers, the complaint system (Posters in English and Spanish), resources, and instruction on how to use a search engine that converts the website to a chosen language.