MONROE — Gov. Tony Evers, together with Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) Secretary Amy Pechacek, visited Monroe and Stevens Point on Monday, March 30 to highlight projects that received funding through the successful Workforce Innovation Grant Program. These were the first of several stops the governor will make throughout the week to highlight various projects and programs that have received support through the Evers Administration’s efforts to bolster workforce development statewide over the last several years.
Gov. Evers and DWD Secretary Pechacek visited the Green County YMCA, which was awarded up to $3.7 million through the Workforce Innovation Grant Program to support the construction of a new, state-of-the-art Childcare and Youth Development Center.
The state officers greeted at the door by Green County YMCA Executive Director Trent Henning and Director of Operations Luke Smetters, who discussed how the money was spent before giving the governor a tour of the facility.
“It’s an unbelievable facility,” Evers told reporters after the tour. “And for Monroe, for the county and I’d say for Southwest Wisconsin, it is an extraordinary facility.”
As Henning and Smetters led the tour, Gov. Evers and Sec. Pechacek met some of the facility workers, including child care personnel and youth development teachers, as well as some students in a classroom and YMCA members enjoying a workout in the upstairs fitness center.
“A lot of good leaders here, and a large early childhood programming. Anything that people from Southwest Wisconsin would want, they’ve got it here. ... It’s a jewel,” Gov. Evers said.
With affordable and available childcare and early education programming a prominent issue not just in Green County, but across the state, Evers was pleased to see the facility has been able to supplement some of the demand.
“You think about all the different things that happen in this facility, and then on top of it, they’re doing childcare. I see childcare and what happens in the Y’s, in the Boys and Girls Clubs across the state. We have to have early childhood programing, it’s really important to support our economy so that people can work,” Gov. Evers said. “I was reading a story about a woman in Darlington that was driving 40 miles to for childcare, then went back to Darlington to work. Those type of things, we can do better than that.”
In 2021, Gov. Evers launched the state’s Workforce Solutions Initiative, which works to connect unemployed or underemployed workers with new opportunities while also incentivizing innovative solutions to regional workforce challenges. Included in Gov. Evers’ Workforce Solutions Initiative were three innovative programs: the Workforce Innovation Grant Program, the Worker Advancement Initiative, and the Worker Connection Program. To date, programs included in the governor’s Workforce Solutions Initiative have collectively served 127,775 Wisconsinites across the state.
Of the 127,775 Wisconsinites served, 118,000 of those workers were helped through the Workforce Innovation Grant Program. Grants were awarded to support projects across the state that seek to address key regional workforce challenges, including barriers to entry, career training, child care, skills training, entrepreneurship, health services, housing, transportation, and more. Through the program, 195 childcare slots were created, 165 housing units were constructed, over 2,550 businesses were served, and 185,000 rides were provided to help workers get to and from work.
The governor and secretary late visited the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Stevens Point, which was awarded up to $8 million through the Workforce Innovation Grant program to support a Forest Industry Workforce Recruitment and Development Initiative, led by the Wisconsin Forestry Center of the College of Natural Resources.