The Spokane Area Workforce Development Council has received $3.2 million—down $150,000 from last year—in state workforce development money for the summer-2014-to-summer-2015 funding period. The reduced funding isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though, since funding is based on the area’s level of unemployment and poverty.

“It’s somewhat counter-cyclical,” says Mark Mattke, the council’s CEO. “When the county is doing poorly, we receive more money. When it’s doing well, we get less money.”

The Spokane council is headquartered at 2000 N. Greene, on the Spokane Community College campus, and has connection sites at all 10 Spokane County libraries. It also is partnered with the on-campus career centers at both Spokane Community College and Spokane Falls Community College, at 3410 W. Fort George Wright Drive. 

The Eastern Washington Partnership Workforce Development Council, which has offices in Newport, Pullman, Colville, Clarkston, and Walla Walla, received $1.4 million in funding, about $100,000 less than last year. The funds for the Eastern Washington Partnership are separate from the Spokane area funds. 

Mattke says the funding received by the council here is used to help people in Spokane County who’ve lost their jobs reconnect to employment. The council provides counseling, skill assessments, and job-search training to people who have been laid off, as well as to people who are disadvantaged or low income. 

“We help people who are unemployed or underemployed update their job-search skills, update their resumes, work on their interviewing skills, and show them how to use the Internet to search for jobs,” Mattke says. “We also use a portion of those funds to help young people. We operate a development center called the Next Generation Zone, where young people can get information about careers and skills that are needed in our area.”

Next Generation Zone, which is located at 901 E. Second downtown, focuses on getting at-risk and disconnected youth back into school or a job, Mattke says. 

The Workforce Development Council is made up of 29 members, Mattke says, and it serves about 25,000 people a year in the Spokane area. 

“We’re responsible for bringing federal resources, a certain allocation each year,” Mattke says. “We use that money to apply for other grants, and leverage that money … to invest in the local employment and training system.”

As an example, the council runs a program at Fairchild Air Force base to help those exiting the military connect to civilian life and jobs, Mattke says. 

“We work with them before they’re separated from the military, so they can translate their skills to civilian life, or they can transition directly to a job.”

In addition to assisting job seekers, the council monitors the local economy to determine which industries are looking for employees here. 

“We learn what the needs of business are; our primary customer is business,” he says. “We figure out what those needs are and then reconnect people with the needs of business.”

The council also provides services to people who have been out of work for long periods of time, working with them to find their skill sets and plug them back into jobs, Mattke says. 

The group focuses its efforts on five sectors of business, he says: aerospace and advanced manufacturing; health care; transportation and logistics; professional technical and scientific services; and finance and insurance. 

The development council also works in partnership with Community Colleges of Spokane, Mattke says, to help job seekers get the education needed for their career paths. Mattke serves as the chief workforce development officer for the community college system here. 

“Between us, we kind of bridge that gap between what business needs are and … education,” he says.