PEORIA, Ill. — On October 15 last year, over 700 community members gathered at the Peoria Civic Center for The Big Table: Greater Peoria Community Event. The trends of the conversations were announced Tuesday at the Peoria Innovation Hub.
The event that day in the fall required over 1,000 poster boards, according to Dr. Larry Weinzimmer, Professor at Bradley University.
The demographics and trends from that meeting focused on workforce development, diversity and inclusion, innovation and entrepreneurship, and quality of life and place.
“What we found with the survey was that workforce development and diversity and inclusion rated statistically higher than innovation and entrepreneurship, quality of place, in terms of need to improve,” Weinzimmer said.
Dr. Rita Ali, Vice President, Workforce, Diversity and Career Development at Illinois Central College, said it is important to help prepare people with credentials to fill the living wage jobs.
“A credential that has labor market value. So, this is a credential that employers want, a skill that employers want to hire for,” Ali said. “It doesn’t necessarily have to mean a degree, sometimes it does mean a college degree.”
Ali said there are many people that are not prepared yet to enter the labor force, and that individuals work multiple jobs to make ends meet.
“But boy, if they could get a good credential, they can get a job that pays a family sustaining wage,” Ali said.
There are lots of opportunities for financial aid and sponsorships to learn and earn, according to Ali.
Chris Setti, CEO of the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council, said a regional workforce alliance is being formed to help with the workforce and education issues.
“But working with education pathways to make sure our young students and young people are getting the kinds of education they need to make good career decisions,” Setti said. “Working with people who are kind of working in dead-end jobs that don’t have the right credentials to get better higher paying jobs.”
They will also work to help those with multiple barriers such as transportation issues, substance abuse issues, or childcare issues.
Leigh Ann Brown, the CEO and Executive Director of the Morton Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Council, said it is amazing to see community members gathered together.
“Seeing the response today of people coming out and engaging, the stories of truly impacting lives, just gives you that humble feeling of we’re on the right path and we can continue to use this as a great tool,” Brown said.
With the trend of workforce development, Brown said that they need people.
“We need people. We need people with skill sets, we need people to grow our businesses,” Brown said.
The full report can be viewed HERE.
