EKCEP’s JobSight service delivery network continues to grow rapidly as 66 sites have applied to join the network as Access Points for JobSight services. The addition of these Access Points will greatly increase the ease with which job seekers and employers throughout the 23-county EKCEP Workforce Investment Area can access the services of all the JobSight partners.

The addition of the Access Points to the network gives JobSight a presence in all 23 counties in the EKCEP Workforce Investment Area.

Access Points are one of three classifications of service outlets that make up the JobSight network. As established by the EKCEP Workforce Investment Board (WIB), the JobSight network includes Comprehensive Centers, Affiliate Sites, and Access Points. The WIB defined the requirements for each classification (see below).

The JobSight network currently includes four Comprehensive Centers and three Affiliate Sites. The Comprehensive Centers are located in Pineville, Manchester, Hazard, and Pikeville. The Affiliate Sites are located in the Kentucky Department for Employment Services offices in Middlesboro and Harlan, and in the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Rehabilitation Center at Thelma (just outside Paintsville).

All 66 of the current crop of Access Points are offices of one of the JobSight partner agencies, where the local staff can offer their own program and lead customers to the other services that are available through the network.

At its December meeting, the WIB gave blanket approval to a list of partner sites which met the Access Point requirements. The current applicants—all of which come from the pre-approved list—will be brought back before the WIB in March for final certification.

Each of the major agencies which are partners in the JobSight network applied for Access Point status for at least some of their program sites in eastern Kentucky. The 66 sites which have applied to become Access Points include: 23 community action agency offices, which offer Community Service Block Grant (CSBG) services and training under Title I of the Workforce Investment Act, both required partner programs; 21 sites of Kentucky’s Department of Adult Education and Literacy; 10 sites on the campuses of Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) institutions, which offer Carl D. Perkins Postsecondary Vocational Education programs; 7 offices of the Kentucky Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, including one office of the Kentucky Department for the Blind; 3 local offices of the Kentucky Department for Employment Services, which provides several JobSight partner programs, including Unemployment Insurance and Veterans Employment Services; 2 Job Corps centers.

At the end of this month, EKCEP staff will conduct an orientation and training session for staff representatives from each of the new Access Points. The session will explain the JobSight network and the ways Access Points are expected to participate in it, as well as serving as the first step in the cross-training, information sharing, and communication between Access Points, Affiliate Sites, and the Comprehensive Centers which is crucial to the success of the JobSight network.

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As defined by the Eastern Kentucky C.E.P. Inc. Workforce Investment Board, the JobSight network includes:

• Comprehensive One-Stop Centers: Comprehensive One-Stop Centers have collocated personnel of at least four agencies representing at least six of the partner programs required under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). Core services are provided on-site for collocated partner programs; core services for noncollocated partner programs are available through facilitated access, technological links, or informed referrals.

• Affiliate Sites: Affiliate Sites have collocated personnel of at least two agencies representing at least three of the partner programs required under WIA. Core services are provided on-site for collocated partner programs; core services for noncollocated partner programs are available through facilitated access, technological links, or informed referrals.

• Access Points: Access Points have personnel of one of the partner programs required under WIA, and/or technology that links customers to the services of one or more of the mandatory partners' programs.