Florence Library Receives Partner Award

The South Carolina Workforce Investment Board has selected the Florence County Library System (FCLS) as the state's Outstanding Workforce Partner in recognition of their partnership with the Pee Dee Workforce Investment Board (WIB). FCLS and the Pee Dee WIB collaborated to provide services and resources for jobseekers at all six Florence County Library System locations throughout Florence County.

According to Interim Library Director Dorothy Crosby, "This great partnership has served as a model for extending the resources and services of state workforce centers to libraries throughout South Carolina, allowing jobseekers to get the help they need at convenient locations and times." Joette Dukes, Workforce Development Director with the Pee Dee Regional Council of Governments, commented, "The Florence County Library System's engagement in workforce development efforts in the Pee Dee Region has been phenomenal. We greatly appreciate their efforts to partner with the Pee Dee WIB in fulfilling its mission to connect job seekers and employers. The library's support has allowed us to extend services to a wider population and to maximize our limited resources."

The Pee Dee WIB provides the library with the same software used at SC Works Centers and also provides workforce services training for library staff. The Friends of the Florence County Library purchased résumé software to support these efforts, and library staff teach basic computer workshops at all library locations to prepare jobseekers for a computerized workplace.

This partnership made possible a public-private collaboration with Monster.com and Project H.O.P.E (A United Way program) that resulted in a job readiness workshop series offered at the library. The Pee Dee WIB and the library also collaborated with the Florence County Economic Development Partnership to prepare jobseekers for interviews at the 2012 Agero Job Fair, which showcased the outstanding workforce available in Florence County.

The award was presented at the South Carolina Workforce Development Partnership Symposium in Hilton Head, South Carolina, on May 14, 2013.

For more information, please contact Aubrey Carroll, Information Services Manager, Florence County Library, 843-413-7070 or acarroll@florencelibrary.org.