Applications are open for restaurants and bars to apply for financial relief. Deadline to apply on December 18th before 11:59pm.

Amount of Assistance:

Businesses will be eligible for up to $10,000 in assistance per location.

Maximum award of up to $20,000 per business entity.

Here is the link to apply: https://teamkyfbrf.ky.gov/

Elizabethtown Community & Technical College will host its very first VIRTUAL Career & Internship Fair on Tuesday, November 10^th from 12:00pm – 2:00pm EST via Microsoft Teams! Employers will have their own meeting rooms where students can join in to learn about open positions and your hiring processes.  There is no fee to participate.

To register for our event please use the link below. Once you have registered you will receive more information regarding the job fair details. The deadline to register will be Monday, November 2^nd at 1:00pm.

Click here to RSVP! We look forward to “seeing” you at our fair!

The Bardstown- Nelson County Chamber and Bullitt County Chamber invite you to be apart of the 3-part training series with Kentucky Chamber Business Liaisons Sonia Osman and Ashley McCarty. These informative sessions are to provide support to employers creating a recovery-friendly culture and reduce stigma surrounding substance use disorder and mental health. You can participate in one or all of the sessions! 

Series Part 3:
This session will give a baseline knowledge of tools your company can use during difficult conversations and actions you can take to reduce stigma surrounding substance use disorder and mental health. 

Location: Zoom Meeting
Zoom Code will be in registration confirmation email Date/Time Information:

Tuesday November 3, 2020
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM EDT

Tuesday September 8th 
10:00-11:00 Training Session 
Sponsored by NuLease Medical Solutions

Register to be a part of the conversation!

https://bardstown.chambermaster.com/eventregistration/register/2885

Help our local students find the right career path once they graduate! Through Imblaze, you can hire students from our local high schools for work-based learning opportunities which include; mentoring, job shadowing, internships, pre-apprenticeships and more. Hiring a student is easy! You can get started by creating a mentor/employer profile on Imblaze. Once you submit the student positions you have available, the school system will review your request and publish the work-based learning opportunity. Students will then be able to apply for your positions through Imblaze.
Click Here to find out more about the ImBlaze system and how to hire a student.

Here is what the schools have to say about the ImBlaze system :
Lance Blanford, Workforce Development Coordinator
Bardstown City Schools
“The Hub is an innovative workforce resource in the fact that it is the first and only website in the state of Kentucky that provides employers, educators, and students access to an internship management system. The Imblaze platform is an innovative way that school districts in our community are bridging the gap between employers and students to guide educational programming, develop student skill sets, create a workforce pipeline, and build strong professional relationships. These experiences and relationships are fundamental in growing our local economy, recruiting and retaining top talent, and helping students achieve their professional dreams.”

David Mudd , Workforce Development Coordinator
Thomas Nelson High School
“ImBlaze connects employers, students, school communities electronically. The system allows for internships/job searching, attendance accountability, as well as recording the history of opportunities within our community.”

Kentucky has so many great things to offer its citizens, but in recent years, the employment rate isn’t one of them. Prior to the pandemic, our state’s unemployment rate was higher than the national average, sitting at 4.2 percent compared to the nation’s 3.6. Today, our state’s unemployment rate has jumped to 13 percent. In the Lincoln Trail region, the workforce participation rate, which measures the number of adults currently working or actively seeking employment, is 60.5% which trails the national average of 64.2%. Hardin Memorial Health (HMH) is dedicated to helping lower that number.

Of the many factors that prevent unemployed individuals from entering the workforce, a prior felony conviction is one of the most common. Too often, capable people are unable to secure employment due to past criminal convictions. To address this issue, HMH has partnered with the Removing Obstacles subcommittee, a part of the Lincoln Trail Workforce Development Board’s Workforce Crisis Task Force. Together, we are piloting a new Expungement Benefit Program to help both prior-convicted individuals and businesses.

Through the expungement program, employers can assist employees with the expungement process and associated costs to remove qualifying Class D felony convictions from their records. This program will empower our community by helping employers retain skilled, long-term employees while giving those willing and able to work a second chance.

The Work Institute’s 2019 Retention Report found that 88 percent more employees quit their jobs last year than they did in 2010. It’s become much more common for employees to jump from one career to the next, making it difficult for many employers to retain motivated workers. Within our region, countless employers are struggling to find people willing to work and stay committed to the job longer than a year. When we combine this information with data showing hired convicts are not fired at any greater rate than other individuals and have a 13 percent higher retention rate, we begin to see a positive path forward.

Through HMH’s expungement program, employees that stay committed to the job for a year while adhering to general standards, such as showing up to work on time and meeting deadlines, receive $1,000 upon their year anniversary. At its core, the program is similar to other benefits that companies offer to improve retention rates.

Last month, HMH had our first staff member complete the Expungement Benefit Program. Timi-Michelle Tolhurst is a married mother of two who graduated with a sociology degree from Western Kentucky University (WKU) in 2016 and lives on a farm with her husband of seven years. Timi made poor choices 10 years ago after choosing to date the wrong man, resulting in a Class D felony charge for possession. Timi received her associate’s degree from Elizabethtown Community and Technical College before going to WKU, all while caring for her family and working multiple low-wage jobs due to her record.

While her record could have legally been expunged after five years, every dollar had to go to rent and food for her family, making the expungement expenses impossible to fulfill. Timi began working for HMH three years ago, and as we worked with the Removing Obstacles subcommittee, she was an obvious choice for our pilot program. Last month, Timi finished the expungement program and had a background check come back clean for the first time in 10 years.

“For people like me who want to put that chapter of their lives behind them, support their families and give back to society, this program is essential,” said Timi. “It has allowed me not just a job, but a career in what I’m trained to do.”

Timi says she hopes her story can help other individuals in similar situations while helping employers realize one felony doesn’t always mean you are a bad person. Like Timi, many have made a poor choice, overcome challenges and are now capable of providing a lot of value to the workforce.

The program may look different for each employer, but the Expungement Benefits Program model has proven to be beneficial for both Timi and HMH. We have retained a very competent employee who is immersed in our culture and mission. We are proud that Timi is finally able to have her record reflect the person she is today. I am also extremely proud that HMH is an early adopter of this program. It is our hope that our positive experience will open up many doors for future HMH employees, and for others across the region by giving a second chance to individuals who are eager to be in the workforce.

For further information on the Lincoln Trail Workforce Development Board’s Expungement Benefit Program, including an Expungement Program How-To Guide for businesses, please visit ltcareercenter.org/expungement.

Author: Myra Covault is Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Hardin Memorial Health and a member of the Lincoln Trail Workforce Development Board. She can be reached at mcovault@hmh.net.

The Lincoln Trail region is full of gifted students ready to make an impact in the world the moment they graduate. Unfortunately, many of these students move outside of our region to pursue careers. Others stay in their hometowns but accumulate debt to gain a degree while feeling they lack satisfactory career opportunities. Ironically, at the same time, companies in our region struggle to find skilled, available workers, a challenge that is growing daily.

To bring greater awareness to the career opportunities available in our region, the Lincoln Trail Workforce Development Board’s Workforce Crisis Task Force is connecting educators with employers through Work-Based Learning Opportunities (WBLOs). WBLOs expose students to meaningful, hands-on work experiences while providing employers an opportunity to train and recruit young talent.

The benefits of WBLOs are extensive for students, employers and the community at large. WBLOs retain the skilled workforce our education system helped build by giving students an opportunity to explore an array of career paths and get their foot in the door with local businesses. Employers, on the other hand, are able to apprentice young workers, expand their workforce when understaffed or during a busy season and fill positions while cutting down on training and recruitment costs. All of this contributes to a vibrant and stable local economy, connecting multiple members of our community.

At Mid-Park, we have partnered with Grayson County High School’s Technology Center to create a track pre-apprenticeship program. We started this program because our community was falling short on career pathway opportunities that teach students high-demand skills. Students in our track program gain hands-on, real-world experience they can use beyond high school. They train with our machining department doing various jobs from working with CAD software to setting up machines. Through this WBLO, we now have access to future employees we have mentored and trained from the start in our work environment and on our machines. This makes these students so valuable to us.

There are several different types of WBLOs like Mid-Park’s track pre-apprenticeship program to help companies and students get the most out of their experiences. Some students take advantage of shadowing or mentoring, while other students and companies benefit more from an internship or apprenticeship. Overall there are eight different WBLOs offered, including service learning, mentoring, shadowing, entrepreneurship, school-based enterprise, internship, cooperative education, and registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship.

Whether you are a company seeking talent or a student considering employment opportunities, the answer is in our own backyard. Students interested in a WBLO should contact their guidance counselor for assistance. Out-of-school youth can contact the Kentucky Career Center – Lincoln Trail to talk to a career coach for assistance in finding WBLOs in our region. The career center offers Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) services to youth ages 16 to 24 who are not currently enrolled in school.

Employers can check out LTcareercenter.org/WBLO and download our “How-to Guide” that outlines WBLOs and how to assess whether or not your company is ready to participate. Starting a WBLO is easier than you think. We have also put together a contact list for the schools within our region that are well equipped with the tools to help your business get started.

Lincoln Trail community members, we need your help to continue to build this incredible region together. Help us spread the word about WBLOs so we can make sure our children have the opportunity they deserve to work fulfilling jobs in their home communities while our employers have access to the talent they need. Our entire region thrives when these needs are met, guaranteeing that our best days are ahead of us!

Author: Trish Niles works for Mid-Park Inc., a partner of the Lincoln Trail Workforce Development Board. She believes in providing Work-Based Learning Opportunities because of how they benefit the student and the employer. Trish can be reached at tniles@mid-park.com.