LOCAL ENERGY COMPANIES PROVIDE ENERGY IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

LOCAL COMPANIES PROVIDE ENERGY

IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE BY JOHN KIRKPATRICK

The Greater Owensboro area is blessed with a wide array of energy companies that keep our community running on all cylinders. In addition to keeping our world lit and our houses warm, these companies also provide a form of energy that far exceeds our natural resources.

These companies possess quality employees and administrators who regularly pour their time and money back into the community. The same time and effort that they commit to their pipelines, cables, and customer service, they also apply to their philanthropic efforts.

ATMOS ENERGY Atmos Energy refers to community involvement as the cornerstone of their daily operations. “Giving to our communities is part of our employee culture,” said Manager of Public Affairs Kay Coomes. “After all, our employees live in the communities we serve, so it is important to our employees as well as our enterprise.”

Atmos’s primary means of giving back is through the efforts of their cooking team, which grills and caters many events and fundraisers for several non-profits in the area. With natural gas serving as a primary component of cooking, it only makes sense for them to tailor their involvement efforts around food.

“It allows us and our employees to be seen in the community,” Coomes said. “They enjoy it, and food is such a warming connection to people. It just makes them smile.”

In addition to their cooking team, Atmos employees also regularly participate in corporate giving as well as belonging to several philanthropic organizations and volunteering for various endeavors within the community.

BOARDWALK PIPELINE Boardwalk Pipeline utilizes a program called Partnering with Communities that integrates employee volunteerism and corporate financial support. The program relies on a combination of both company-wide and locally-focused charitable outreach, and allows regional offices to determine how and where their philanthropy dollars are used.

“Volunteer programs are one of the most impactful ways of spreading the philanthropy focus and importance across a company,” said Manager of Administration Diane Emerson.

A top priority in their involvement efforts is higher education, which includes regular giving to Brescia University, Kentucky Wesleyan College, and Owensboro Community and Technical College. The organization also hosts regular Job Shadow Days where students from various secondary and undergraduate institutions interact with employees, exposing them to potential jobs and the skills required to perform them.

The company also provides annual charitable contributions to many notable health and arts organizations in Owensboro. “Our efforts within the community have no boundaries,” said Emerson. “We also have a matching program in place that allows employees to submit requests for Boardwalk to match donations made to charities of their choosing.”

KENERGY Kenergy also utilizes corporate donations as a means of providing for the community, generally providing sponsorships for various youth and non-profit programs in the area.

Their most notable community outreach effort is a program called Operation Round-up, where members can elect to have their energy bills round up to the nearest dollar amount. This spare change is then compiled into one account that is used to assist low-income members with paying their bills.

With Kenergy primarily serving as a liaison for their members that wish to assist their other members, “Our members are super kind and gracious,” said Communications and Public Relations specialist Leslie Neely. “This is a direct impact for these people. It helps them immediately and prevents them from getting stressed. It’s just one small thing we can do.”

In addition to Operation Round-up, they also speer head a community-wide sock drive called Socktober. “Last year we collected over 6,000 pairs of socks,” Neely said. “It’s something small, but we feel like it can be impactful for a lot of people.”

O W E N S B O R O M U N I C I P A L UTILITIES Owensboro Municipal Utilities (OMU) gives thousands of dollars in donations to local charitable organizations and volunteer teams comprised solely of their employees. The team assists with fundraising events and improvement projects all around town, while the company matches every donation that their employees make to the United Way.

Because OMU is a not-for-profit organization, they have a nine million dollar dividend that they pour back into the city of Owensboro annually. That dividend will often take the form of cash, but it can also be services, new street lights, traffic signals, and much more. “We live in this area,” said OMU spokesperson Sonya Dixon. “We have a vested interest in the quality of life in our community.”

Another community effort is the annual safety program that their line technicians teach in both the county and city school systems. OMU also takes advantage of the Public Power Month Celebration and uses it as an opportunity to thank the community and their customers, who ultimately own the organization. Public Power Month is highlighted by Power Run/Walk 5K that is entering its 12th year.

SOUTHERN STAR Southern Star’s strategic focus in community outreach is on youth, arts, science and technology through the formation of a community outreach team and corporate donations.

With science, technology, engineering and mathematics as the heart of their employee base, Southern Star partners with the Owensboro Innovation Academy and Apollo High School to assist in educating students in those fields.

“We believe in those programs, what they’re doing, and the education they’re providing,” said Director of Communications and Public Relations Karen Goedde.

A pivotal component of the programs is the robotics team, where students design and construct industrial-size robots to play a difficult field game against competitors. Southern Star employees serve as judges and volunteers. Apollo is set to host the state finals this year, marking the first time the competition has been hosted west of I-65.

Other community outreach efforts include several arts and youth organizations, including Puzzle Pieces, Dream Riders and more.

“Giving back to many organizations that help serve our community is very important to us,” Goedde said. “As a corporate citizen, we want to be a true partner in the community where we live and work.”

By Cindy Fiorella, Vice President OCTC Workforce Solutions HOW COMMUNITY PARTNERS ARE BUILDING A TALENT PIPELINE GO FEMALES

Greater Owensboro is recognized for innovation and collaboration, particularly in addressing today’s skilled technician shortage. What happens when GO workforce partners – industry, education, and economic development stakeholders – come together? GO FEMALES! This dynamic, new initiative is designed to “skill up” incumbent, women production workers for high demand roles as skilled technicians in manufacturing. Thanks to a National Science Foundation grant and with support from the Kentucky Workforce Development Cabinet, Owensboro Community and Technical College (OCTC) recently launched its first cohort of 20 participants at UniFirst Corp.

With its all women trainees and worksite instructional delivery, GO FEMALES is a new national benchmark in workforce collaboration. Built on GO FAME’s successful “work and learn” model, the program blends on-line learning with hands-on skill instruction. GO FEMALES students participate in 8 hours per week of integrated manufacturing training held on the UniFirst facility floor as part of their full time employment with the company. Successful completers will earn an Industrial Maintenance Technician degree in two years, giving the participants greater career opportunities with UniFirst, as well as offering the company value-added team members as it competes in today’s global market. While UniFirst team members comprise the entire first cohort of GO FEMALES students, the second cohort is open to multiple companies from across the region and will launch in August, 2020.

Candance Castlen Brake, President and CEO of the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce added, “The strong partnership between Owensboro Community and Technical College and our Chamber has a tremendous impact on our members and their ability to compete in a global marketplace. When we connect OCTC to a member’s workforce need, we do so with the confidence that the programming will be a standard bearer. GOFEMALES is just that. It will transform individual lives and have positive outcomes for the company. It truly is a win-win.”

Dr. Scott Williams shared that, “OCTC is extremely fortunate to serve a community where business, education, and workforce development partners roll up their sleeves to tackle truly tough issues. Thanks to the GO Chamber of Commerce and UniFirst, the college has a new tool in its efforts to ensure that this region’s skilled workforce is second to none. The country’s aging workforce and new technologies have resulted in hundreds of thousands of skilled technician jobs remaining unfilled. By working together to engage nontraditional populations, we ensure that “no worker is left behind” in career and wage advancement. Further, by bringing the actual training to the workplace, we minimize time off production task for our industry partners and maximize worker participation and skill attainment. “

Dave Roberts, General Manager of Distribution at UniFIrst, expanded on the critical importance of industry/education collaboratives. “We are always looking for innovative ways to develop, enhance and advance our workforce. Likewise, we aim to be an employer of choice by creating opportunities for personal and professional growth in the lives our team partners – our most valued assets. OCTC has played an integral role over the years in helping UniFirst achieve these goals by establishing a partnership through deep understanding of our business including our people, processes and customers. GO FEMALES is a product of this partnership. OCTC’s knowledge of our workforce demographics, which is largely comprised or women, created a pathway to this innovative education and training solution that removes barriers to entry and enhances personal and career opportunities that were otherwise previously unattainable. We are proud to partner with Owensboro Community and Technical College to deliver this leading-edge learning model and enhance the lives of our team.”

For more information on the GO FEMALES initiative please contact sheri. plain@kctcs.edu or call OCTC’s Workforce Solutions at 270-686-4444.