Delta Compass

Washington County Work Ready Association is a non-profit organization focused on providing education, skills development, and workforce training to low-income individuals and families in Mississippi Delta communities. Through federal grants, primarily as a subrecipient, it supports programs that link skills training to labor market demand, reduce barriers to accessing training, provide expungement clinics and reentry services, and create a pipeline for at-risk and adjudicated youth to gain certifications and transition to employment.

Specific services Washington County Work Ready Association has provided via federal grants include: staffing to administer grants and conduct financial reconciliation, enabling it to assist Delta residents with accessing training and education; scaling up the Greenville Community Safety Collaborative to build a prison-to-employment pipeline through workforce development, expungement clinics, and rapid reattachment of returning citizens to jobs; sustaining the Opportunity Youth Training Program to assess employability skills and provide workforce courses leading to demanded certifications; and expanding community safety partnerships and decreasing crime by reconnecting opportunity youth to training. Major federal grants supporting these community workforce development initiatives have been awarded by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation.