Grand Rapids, MICHIGAN – West Michigan business leaders interested in helping community members transition out of welfare can get a detailed debriefing from a company that has done extensive work in that area – Cascade Engineering.

Representatives from Cascade Engineering will join members of the company’s Community Resource Team – external partners who work with Cascade on the issue – to brief area business leaders on lessons learned from five years of the Cascade Engineering Welfare-to-Career initiative. The session will be presented on Monday, May 14, 2001, from 9:15-11 a.m. at the Cascade Engineering Learning Community, 5251 36th SE.

Members of the Cascade Engineering team will include Fred P. Keller, Chairman/CEO; Ronald Jimmerson, Manager of Workforce Diversity and Community Partnerships; and David Barrett, Senior Organizational Consultant for Learning & Development. Members of the Community Resource Team will include the State of Michigan Career Development Office; Win Irwin, president of the Kent/Allegan Workforce Development Board; the Area Community Services Employment and Training Council (ASCET) and the Family Independence Agency.

The group will also hear from Mark Peters, CEO of Butterball Farms, who recently began a parallel effort at his company.

Cascade Engineering has hired 135 people who came to the company as a result of the Welfare-to-Career initiative, and has an 83 percent retention rate with this group.

Keller said Cascade Engineering and its partners want to share these lessons in order to help other companies pursue similar initiatives and, in the process, help create a more sustainable community.

“On the way to trying to do the right thing, we have learned some important lessons that have benefited Cascade Engineering, the new employees and, we think, the community,” Keller said. “That’s a win-win-win. But the path has not been straight or intuitively obvious. With everything we have learned about these transitions and about the retention of people, it is a great time to share those lessons with others who might consider traveling this path as well.”

Those wishing to attend this session can reserve a spot by calling Mary Zdan of Cascade Engineering at 975.4802.