By Max Showalter
mshowalter@journalandcourier.com
April 2, 2006
The faces change, but over the past three years the mission of the Business and
Professional Exchange has remained the same: Provide resources, job search
assistance and networking opportunities for unemployed and underemployed
white-collar workers in Greater Lafayette and the surrounding area.
"Local companies are starting to send us their referrals. Companies are using us as
a source of recruitment," said BPE president Chris Waymire, a trainer for
Tecumseh Area Partnership Inc. "We had four people leave the group in
February and one announced this month that he had found a job." >>Read More
Tippecanoe One of Nine Counties Receiving Grant
Development and Indiana Economic Development Corporation have awarded
$1,089,273 in Training Acceleration Grants to nine Indiana companies.
The Training Acceleration Grant program provides financial assistance to
companies and organizations seeking to expand the skills of their existing
workforce through training programs that result in industry-recognized
credentials. This grant program is one of the state’s primary job training programs
offered to Indiana businesses. >>Read More
The largest single job creation initiative in Greater Lafayette in nearly 20 years was officially
announced March 13, 2006. Ending months of negotiations and speculation, Toyota Motor Corp. will
begin building its Camry model sedan at the Subaru of Indiana Automotive Inc. plant in Lafayette next
spring and could create up to 1,000 additional jobs at the facility that currently employs 2,230 people.
To build a quality product, a quality workforce is needed and Lafayette demonstrated it has the skilled
workers to meet the demands of both SIA and Toyota.
Teamwork has Lafayette clicking on all cylinders
An emerging Indiana region has high-tech aspirations, a renewed emphasis on university research
and a solid manufacturing base.
We're talking about Indianapolis, right?
Not today. Instead, we're talking about our cousins in Lafayette and the rest of Tippecanoe County.
The economic DNA is the same, just on a smaller scale. >>Read More
If you were forced to simply put on your jacket this afternoon and walk away from your whole life with
no forwarding address and without any good-byes......you may have a faint idea how Hurricane
Katrina affected many people.
Imagine spending a month in a shelter on a cot with strangers sleeping within a foot on either side of
you...no privacy to even change underwear... no showers, no job, no friends. While you wait in line for
fifteen minutes to use one of the public restrooms the bedding could be stripped right off your cot or
you could get mugged while going outside for a smoke. No way to protect your things or your space...
Then imagine what it would be like to spend the next one hundred fifty days without a thin dime in your
pocket. Okay, now you've got emergency housing, a few sticks of used furniture, a pile of used
clothing and Food Pantry food in the cupboard for three days at a time.
Try six months with no cash at all. No toaster, no coffee pot, no broom or sweeper, no car and no bed
sheets. No hairdryer, no makeup, no condoms, no T.V., no job, no childcare, no transportation. Just a
lot of waiting for weeks at a time for little things like a telephone or for documentation to arrive so you
could be eligible for assistance....again.....later. >>Read More
2300 Concord Road
PO Box 4729
Lafayette, IN 47903-4729
765 477-1710
