Work Force Development

Few issues stir up political debates these days like immigration.

At the risk of adding more fuel to the fire, I'll suggest there are at least two kinds of immigrants any region would want: highly skilled and entrepreneurial. On Monday night a group of entrepreneurial immigrants gathered at a Warehouse District bar in downtown Cleveland to network with each other and others interested in spurring more young companies in Northeast Ohio.

One of the entrepreneurs in the room was Prashant Chopra, CEO of the Open Student Television Network (You Tube for the college crowd and much, much more).

Prashant is trying to raise capital to dramatically increase the programming and revenue capacity of this college television network. He was lured to Cleveland by Case's Lev Gonick and now wants to build an entrepreneurial success here. All of Northeast Ohio would benefit from such immigrant entrepreneurs and hopefully our nation's caustic immigration debate won't prevent them from succeeding here.

Local immigration lawyer Richard Herman, Mark Santo of the Cleveland Council on World Affairs and several others are working on how to make sure Northeast Ohio is more welcoming to both immigrant entrepreneurs and talented immigrants that are in such high demand by employers.

One option is to form a local chapter of TIE, a global network that promotes entrepreneurship. Check out the web site and see if such an organization makes sense in Northeast Ohio.

To succeed in the global economy, Northeast Ohio needs to become a global destination for entrepreneurs, businesses and capital. One way we'll know we're succeeding is if more immigrants choose to build their future in Northeast Ohio.

I chair a community collaboration in Wayne County known as the Wayne County Common Good. It has been in existence since 1995. This is a collaboration of community agencies and government offices all of which share concerns about the employment of their customers/clients/patients. We have 14 members, which includes the Wayne Economic Development Council; and we are a member of the Wooster and Orrville Chambers of Commerce. These concerns range from underemployment, long term unemployment, at risk youth who need a vision regarding their futures, adults being able to construct a pathway from where they are at to a place where they can sustain themselves through employment; and seeing economic opportunities grow in the area.

As a group we feel strongly that we can play a role in what Advance N.E. Ohio is doing by doing our part to improve the workforce, thinking that many (not all) social problems diminish greatly when people have gainful employment or are on a path to it that they can trust. The Wayne County Common Good serves as the Advisory Board for the Employment and Training Connection (one stop service center for Ashland/Holmes and Wayne Counties. Lud Huck from Voices and Choices came and spoke with us at our March meeting.