A Joint Initiative Between     Heart of Wisconsin     Business & Economic Alliance and     Community Foundation of     South Wood County

Home About Us B2B Club Breaking News Contact Donate Events / Programs Feedback Ideas Incubator Industry Clusters Links / Resources Progess Funds Progress Teams Public Art / Murals Publications		Breaking News October 17, 2005 - Community Progress pays dividends By Dave Pryor & Traci Biolo for the Daily Tribune Editor's note: The Daily Tribune regularly will publish columns updating Community Progress Initiative activities in local communities. Dave Pryor and Traci Biolo of Quality Plus Printing are members of the Paper and Forestry Products Cluster. At a recent Paper and Forestry Products Cluster meeting, Connie Loden and Melissa Loken invited Deb Clements from the Wisconsin Department of Commerce to share and discuss grant and loan opportunities that are available for businesses. With the information gathered, we applied for and received a BEST grant through the Department of Commerce. The BEST grant was established by the state Legislature to help small businesses in industries facing severe labor shortages to upgrade the skills of their workforce. The acronym stands for Business Employees Skills Training program. Under the BEST program, the department can provide applicants with a tuition reimbursement grant to help cover a portion of the costs associated with training employees. The grant application was made extremely easy with the help of Clements and Todd Jensen. With the aid of this grant, we were able to attend a four-day seminar in the Fox Valley, and 75 percent of their tuition expenses for job training were reimbursed. The seminar allowed us to experience lectures, theories, training, tours and hands-on learning. The time spent requesting the grant was well worth the business contacts and partnerships made throughout the four days. We would like to thank the Community Progress Initiative; Paper and Forestry Products Cluster; Connie; Melissa; Heart of Wisconsin Business and Economic Alliance; and Deb and Todd of the state Department of Commerce - all helped in our application to obtain the grant for this valuable training. Anyone interested in participating in the Paper and Forestry Products Cluster may call the Heart of Wisconsin Alliance at 423-1830.
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