Washington, D.C.– Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva today congratulated the State of Arizona for receiving more than $1.6 million from the Department of Commerce (DOC) to create job search Internet hubs and virtual workforce training centers around the state. The money, which comes through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act via DOC’s National Telecommunications & Information Administration,will establish Job Help Hubs at 28 public and Tribal libraries and install Virtual Workforce Workstations at 198 public and tribal libraries and two community centers statewide.

Each of the 28 hubs will receive 10 new laptops with specialized software and offer up to 40 hours of training per month. The workforce workstations will each include a dedicated desktop computer with its own printer/fax/scanner and access to AZ Workforce job assistance resources. According to DOC information, the funds will establish one Job Help Hub in each of the state’s 13 rural counties and multiple hubs in heavily populated counties, plus two additional hubs in tribal libraries.

In addition to covering the costs of job search hardware and software, the grant will pay for the training of instructors and librarians at Job Help Hubs to assist patrons with basic job search activities such as interviewing, Internet job searches, and resumé writing. The workforce workstations will help participants find employment opportunities and train for employment in various fields.

“This kind of employment assistance is vital in any economy, but it’s all the more vital now when state and local governments are cutting their budgets,” Grijalva said of the grant. “Up-to-date job skills are not a luxury. Part of getting Arizona back to work in a sustainable economy is making sure everyone has the tools they need to find, apply for and succeed in a new or different position. This grant is going to help economically hard-hit Tribal areas as well as the rest of the state, and that’s something we’ll all be thanking ourselves for in the long run as we continue to build a better state economy for the future.”

The grant includes assistance to libraries managed by the Cocopah Indian Tribe and the Tohono O’odham Nation, among others.

For more information, call Matthew Hanson at the Office of Economic Recovery at (602) 542-7567.