Department of Employment Services Releases 2005 Annual Report - Releases

Significant Accomplishments Highlighted

(Washington, DC) The Department of Employment Services (DOES) released its 2005 Annual Report, highlighting the agency’s performance and major accomplishments. The 20-page report, titled Looking Ahead, emphasizes the agency’s efforts to ensure a strong investment in workforce programs and services to assist District residents achieve employment.

Among some of the more significant accomplishments highlighted in the report are:

The Way-to-Work legislative package, which the Council enacted and the Mayor signed into law; designed to put hard-to-employ District residents back to work and improve the economic health of "Hot Spot" neighborhoods.
The Project Empowerment Plus (PE+) ex-offender program, which served 258 serious and violent offenders, 157 of whom were placed into jobs. The program won the US Department of Labor’s prestigious 2006 Recognition of Excellence (ROE) Award for its outstanding contributions to a hard-to-serve population (ex-offenders).
The implementation of more than 750 First Source Employment Agreements, affording gainful employment to approximately 2,925 District residents.
The approval of 31 new apprenticeship sponsors, all in the construction trades, which led to more than 1,300 new apprentices, of which 260 were District residents – a 43% increase from 2004.

Gregg Irish, Director of DOES, notes that the efforts of the Department ensure that all segments of the District's population are positively impacted. Citing the national recognition awarded to DOES for its more successful programs, Director Irish adds that, "The prestigious national awards we have earned with our re-entry initiative and our Veterans Program are testaments to the tremendous growth we have experienced this past year. Our accomplishments, accumulatively, bode well for continued improvement in service delivery in 2006 and beyond.

The Department of Employment Services plans, develops, and delivers employment-related services to all segments of the Washington, D.C. community. For a copy of the Department of Employment Services’s 2005 Annual Report, call (202) 671-2100 or log on to www.does.dc.gov, and click on Documents.