Access NYC Adds Workforce Development Services

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday announced that ACCESS NYC, an online program that identifies and screens eligibility for 35 city, state, and federal human service benefit programs, has added seven new programs to its offerings, including five workforce development programs. Launched last year to provide New Yorkers with free, anonymous, online information about benefit eligibility, ACCESS NYC helps working families learn about government programs, services and tax credits that may be available to them. The mayor also announced that the Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) is funding an outreach team to provide training in how to use the ACCESS NYC tool.

"The addition of workforce development programs to ACCESS NYC will make it faster and easier for individuals to enter programs that will help them obtain the training and skills that will lead to good jobs and self-sufficiency," said Bloomberg.  

"Improving the accessibility of government services is a major goal of the Bloomberg Administration," said Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs.  "ACCESS NYC provides a critical service and by adding these new programs, individuals and families can learn more about the additional benefits for which they can qualify."  

The programs added to the existing ACCESS NYC Web site, and for which individuals can screen themselves for potential eligibility include:

• Workforce1: a workforce development program that provide jobseekers with a full array of employment services including placement, career advisement, job search counseling, and skills training.
• Senior Employment Services: provides training and employment services for low income seniors.
• NYCHA Resident Employment Services: provides free job training and placement services for NYCHA residents.
• Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP): provides NYC youth ages 14-21 with seven weeks of summer employment and education experience.
• In-School Youth (ISY): provides neighborhood-based vocational training and educational programs for low-income, high school juniors and seniors.
• Nurse-Family Partnership: provides home-visitation for high-risk, first-time mothers, their infants, and their families.
• New York State Commodity Supplemental Food Program: offers free and nutritious food to women, infants, children, and seniors age 60 and older.
  

"Last fall, Mayor Bloomberg launched ACCESS NYC as a transformative way of helping New Yorkers help themselves," said Commissioner of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications Paul Cosgrave. "Twelve months and more than 130,000 visits later, ACCESS NYC continues to deliver on that promise.  By providing a common point of access for nearly three-dozen programs with just a click of the mouse, customer service on NYC.gov has never been as effective -- or meaningful."

Along with learning about benefits eligibility, city residents can print partially-complete application forms, search for office locations, obtain lists of the documents necessary for program enrollment, and create an account to access their information at a later time.  ACCESS NYC is available in seven languages including Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Haitian Creole, Russian, Arabic, and English. In its first year of operation, ACCESS NYC has received 131,500 hits and more than 23,000 applications have been downloaded from the Web site.