Metropolitan Washington CareerPath Project Is Expanding

Mayor Anthony A. Williams, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, City Council Chair Linda W. Cropp joined a host of D.C. officials, union leaders and community activists for the grand opening of the A. Philip Randolph Worker Center and D.C. One Stop Career Center on Friday August 30.

“The center represents more than another resource for job training. It represents labor and government working together.”

DC Mayor Anthony Williams

Named after the legendary labor leader and civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph, the center at 6210 North Capitol Street. N.W. serves as the new headquarters of the Metropolitan Washington CareerPath Project which seeks to train and place city residents in well paying union jobs.

When D.C. General Hospital closed in the summer of 2001, the D.C. Department of Employment Services joined forces with the Metropolitan Washington Council AFL-CIO to launch the CareerPath Project to assist laid off hospital workers.

During the past year, CareerPath has provided services—including counseling, training and job placement assistance—to more than 300 former D.C. General Hospital workers. The program has met its initial goal of placing 160 displaced workers into new jobs.

With the opening of the A. Philip Randolph Worker Center, the CareerPath Project is expanding to help additional displaced and low-wage workers find self-sustaining jobs.

CareerPath partners include the D.C. Department of Employment Services (DOES), the AFL-CIO Working For America Institute, and other local unions and their employers in hospitality, health care, and other industries.

CareerPath offers many services to displaced workers including comprehensive and specialized assessment of skill levels, employment barriers and employment goals; individual counseling and career planning; basic computer and math training; training to assist with the development of learning skills, communication skills, interview skills, punctuality, professional conduct and preparation for unsubsidized employment or training; career track training; referrals for GED, External Diploma and specialized occupational skills training; and job placement assistance.

A Partnership That Works

The grand opening of the A. Philip Randolph Worker Center marks the latest in a series of successful partnerships between the D.C. Department of Employment Services and the Metropolitan Washington Council AFL-CIO.

Last summer the city announced a new program run by the local AFL-CIO’s Community Services Agency to re-train and place into new jobs D.C. General Hospital workers laid off when the hospital closed. The project, called the Metropolitan Washington CareerPath Project, has helped place 160 former hospital workers into new jobs to date.

In addition, last fall, the city opened a temporary employment services center at the AFL-CIO national headquarters in downtown Washington to handle an overflow of requests for assistance from recently laid off D.C. workers including many laid off in the wake of September 11.

D.C. officials joined labor leaders in cutting the ribbon at the opening of the new A. Philip Randolph Worker Center that will serve as headquarters for the city's expanded CareerPath Project. From right to left are AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, Washington Metropolitan Council AFL-CIO President Joslyn Williams, City Council Chair Linda W. Cropp and At Large Councilman Phil Mendelson.