ProNet News & Annoucements

Work-force effort wins N.C. cash

Steve Partridge needs to get used to being called Mr. ProNet.

ProNet Charlotte, the work-force recovery group Partridge leads, has received state funding to keep the organization running until at least summer 2011.

The program launched last summer as a networking and support group for laid-off professionals, and it opened an uptown career center in the fall with cash from the federal stimulus bill. That money will run out June 30, but Gov. Bev Perdues office has set aside $140,000 from stimulus and work-force development funding to keep ProNet in business.

It has already helped so many people, says Partridge, managing director of the Charlotte Regional Work Force Recovery Initiative. Ive had people yell, Hey, Mr. ProNet at me from across the aisle at Costco just to say thank you.

Partridge says the ProNet career center uptown has served 1,500 unemployed Charlotteans since it opened in October. More than 100 of those individuals told organizers it was the main reason they found a new job.

The center, at 525 N. Tryon St., was opened with stimulus dollars and donations from dozens of local businesses. Bank of America Corp. has leased the 10,000-square-foot office space to the group at no charge.

The bank and many of the other donors have agreed to continue supporting the program.

Organizers wanted the career center and other programs to feel like a business environment, not a government agency. Job-seekers are given free access to conference rooms, cubicles with personal computers, fax machines, and seminars and networking groups aimed at the unemployed white-collar worker.

The goal is to meet the needs of professionals who wouldnt usually seek help from a traditional unemployment office.

At the center uptown, you instantly feel like youre clocking in to go to work, says Cassandra Whitlow, a ProNet participant who used the resources after she lost her job at Duke Energy Corp. in October. Its a place that gives you a feeling of hope and camaraderie.

Whitlow started working this spring for a staffing company recruiting employees for Time Warner Cable. She credits ProNets motivational seminars and personal-branding workshops for invigorating her job search. And Whitlow, a former recruiter at Duke, also volunteered to counsel other job-seekers.

Partridge says ProNet will soon expand the career centers hours to 40 hours per week from 32. And discussions are under way to offer satellite services in Ballantyne and the Lake Norman area. The original ProNet networking group still meets at the Harris Campus of Central Piedmont Community College.

The program has been so successful that Perdue, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx and BofAs Charlotte market president, Charles Bowman, all praise the effort in a video on the ProNet website. Supporters hope it will become a permanent part of how North Carolina assists job-seekers. Partridge says a few other states have contacted him about ProNets success.

This started as a kind of six-month experiment, he says. Now were hoping to roll it out.

Updated: May 23, 2010