Workforce Development Web Site Wins Innovative National Program Award

Normal, AL – An Extension Community Resource Development Specialist recently accepted the Innovative National Program Award by the Association of Extension Administrators in Atlanta, GA.

(From Left: Dr. Linda Williams-Willis, AEA Chair; Rosalie Lane, and Dr. Clyde Chesney, AEA Vice-Chair.  Photo taken by Extension photographer W. A. Rice.)

Rosalie Lane, Extension Urban Affairs specialist, was honored for her collaborative work with partner Ray Ali, associate director, Department of the Land-Grant Programs at West Virginia State College, for the WECAN4U Web site (www.WECAN4U.net). WECAN4U is a workforce employment education, and financial literacy Web site. Although it is designed specifically for citizens of Alabama and West Virginia, the site can be valuable to diverse audiences internationally.

Lane and Ali began work on the site in October 2000 after recognizing the need for practical and up-to-date job, education, and financial information for underserved populations. WECAN4U has received more than 20,000 hits from more than 4,900 diverse in both rural and urban communities since it was launched in May 2001.

“Almost 50 percent of the hits on the site have been in the area of employment and workforce education,” said Lane. “I imagine that with the downturn of the economy and the tremendous job loss nationwide, that site use will increase in both states. 

WECAN4U was developed as part of a multistate agreement between the Alabama Cooperative Extension System’s Urban Affairs & New Nontraditional Programs unit at Alabama A&M University and the Department of Land-Grant Programs at West Virginia State College.

(Sources: Wendi Williams, Assistant to 1890 Administrator for Program Analysis, Reporting & Technical Editing, and Rosalie Lane, Urban CRD Specialist.)