Grant That Paid For Free Employment Services Deadline Imminent

There's still plenty of no cost employment services assistance as well as training funding for employees who were affected by the September 2010 lay offs at Mohegan Sun. But time to take advantage of these free services is quickly running out.

The program at CTWorks East Career Centers, which ends in December 2012, is provided at no cost to any person who was involved in the Mohegan Sun lay-off in September 2010, but also extends to people who were laid off after that initial group.

More than 350 workers were given pink slips in 2010, the first mass lay-off in the casino’s history. At the time, casino officials said the move was in response to declining slots revenue to the tune of about $39 million in 2009, down nearly 9 percent from 2008. Officials blamed the recession for those declines. 

Help for workers still without jobs includes job search assistance, résumé development and critique, pursuit of skill upgrades (including; classroom based, online, and On the Job Training), networking assistance, and even individualized referrals to community based support systems.

The Eastern Connecticut Workforce Investment Board (EWIB), headquartered in Franklin recognizes that massive layoffs can have a major impact on the local economy; even years after they’ve taken place. The EWIB received this National Emergency Grant to assist people laid off from Mohegan Sun beginning in September of 2010 to the present.

Successful outreach is key to helping people “achieve employment.”

 “We are in the last six months of the grant contract. We still have resources to assist anyone who might have been part of that original group,” said Nancy Gartley, the Workforce Advisor working with former Mohegan Sun employees.

“With Connecticut’s unemployment rate dropping below 8 percent, I’d like to think that many of the affected were able to find work. If they haven’t, chances are their unemployment compensation will soon end. We are here to help,” she said.

Former Mohegan Sun employees should contact Gartley at (860) 859-5603 or at ngartley.ctwbs@ct.gov for more information.

The Eastern Connecticut Workforce Investment Board (EWIB) works with local, state, and federal legislators, key elected officials and businesses to ensure that the constantly changing needs of the Eastern Connecticut’s employers and job-seekers are met in a manner that keeps Eastern Connecticut at the forefront of industry and technology.

The CTWorks system is a partnership of organizations working as a team to promote a universal approach to providing effective workforce assistance to job seekers and businesses. This collaboration of state, regional and local organizations is designed to provide a seamless delivery system of programs and services.

This is an equal opportunity program. Auxiliary aids and services are available upon request to individuals with disabilities.