Duluth At Work Project Benefits Everyone

Working with great employees can change your whole perspective. Kathy Quade would love to work with more employees like Brittney Bates. Both women work at bayshore Health Center and both seem to love their job. Bates, loves her job working as a CNA—taking care of about 10 residents at a time, according to the Duluth News Tribune.  “I love all my residents,” she said. “Every time I see them, I just smile. They just smile. They’re just happy, happy people.” She has such a positive attitude that it is more than contagious.  “I don’t think there’s a person or resident here who doesn’t like her,” said Quade, Bayshore’s human resources coordinator. “She has a bubbly personality. She’s never negative. Whenever she’s at work, she seems to be happy. I know the residents enjoy that and her co-workers do, too.”

Finding people who love their job and are highly qualified can be a real challenge when it comes to a place like Bayshore. This is a problem for places like this around the country.  “There’s always a need, there’s always a turnover,” Quade said. “It takes a special kind of person to do it and perform the duties. Caregiving definitely comes from the heart, and they definitely have to have the skills.”

Duluth At Work and Bayshore have teamed up to create the ultimate working team together. They work together to create work possibilities for low income people. This allows the workers to create self-sufficiency and also to create a sense of ethics among the community. Over the past few months, Quade has hired a few CNAs along with Bates.  “I still have three of them, and the three I do have are exceptional,” Quade said. “They’re great caregivers; they pick up extra shifts and stay for overtime.”

As you can see, it’s a way to bring in people who care about their job and also make a difference in the lives of people around them. Duluth At Work is a program that helps people find employment that will last a long time. It also helps to boost the incomes of the people they hire. The ultimate goal is to bring the workers up past the poverty line and also help them to better the lives of themselves and their families.

“There is no greater gift than knowing you’ve made a difference in someone’s life,” said Emily Larson, Duluth At Work coordinator. Each person who is brought into the program is screened and undergoes professional training for the position. “We deliver good employees who are ready to work, who have demonstrated their reliability,” Larson said. “Businesses get great employees out of it.” This is a great program to find people who need jobs and to find employers who need good workers. It’s a good balance for all people in the working class.