Over the last three years, the Queens Workforce1 Career Center has placed 10,000 New Yorkers in jobs. To celebrate this milestone, the Center will present awards to its business and community partners on Wednesday, Nov. 19, at 8:30 am in the Queens Workforce1 Career Center, 168-25 Jamaica Ave.

"What our Queens Workforce1 Career Center has accomplished in just three years is truly outstanding. The Center has served a remarkable number of people and forged many strong relationships with businesses that are important to the economic growth of New York City," said Rob Walsh, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS).

SBS has eight Workforce1 Career Centers throughout the city. SBS contracted D.B. Grant Associates to operate the Queens Center three years ago in November 2005, and the number of Queens jobseekers placed in work has increased every year since then. The Center placed 3,141 people in jobs in 2006 and 3,620 in 2007. So far in 2008, the Queens Workforce1 Career Center has helped 3,215 people find jobs, and more than 22,000 New Yorkers have enrolled for services there.

A core reason for the Queens Center's success is its partnerships with employers and its attention to the workforce needs of businesses, said Dale Grant, president of D.B. Grant Associates.

"In order to accomplish workforce goals, it takes business, workers, and government collaborating to make the system work. We have all three represented," Ms. Grant said. "We need to support businesses so they can thrive in this challenging environment. Through feedback from businesses, we know how to prepare people for careers."

The November 19 event will award partners in business and the community who helped the Center place 10,000 people in jobs over the three years. Award recipients include employers Banana Republic, Lockman Inc, and AHRC, an organization that serves people with disabilities.

Ms. Grant said she has ambitious goals for the Queens Workforce1 Career Center in the coming years.

"Getting people work is more crucial than ever," Ms. Grant said. "We want to get people in a job and then in continuous learning. We're thinking not just about getting them income but getting them more income. We've grown to a point where we think a job is not enough."

New York City's eight Workforce1 Career Centers offer career counseling, workshops to prepare jobseekers for work and for interviews, access to occupational training, the latest job listings, and other job preparation and placement services. The Centers together have placed people in nearly 60,000 jobs since 2004.

D.B. Grant Associates also manages two new SBS initiatives in Queens funded by the Mayor's Center for Economic Opportunity, which works to reduce poverty in the city. Queens's new NYC Transportation Workforce1 Career Center prepares New Yorkers to attain jobs and promotions in the transportation sector, one of the city's high-growth industries. Additionally, D.B. Grant Associates manages Employment Works, which helps New York City probationers find and retain jobs in growth occupations.