Who We Are
- WORK it UP
is the statewide association for unemployed and under-employed professionals.
- WORK it UP is a 501-c-3 nonprofit originally established in 2009 and operated by unemployed professionals who met at the Portland Career Center's Unemployed Professionals Group conducted by Cindy Edwards.
- The organization was conceived as a social entrepreneurial economic development enterprise expressly designed to unite two halves of the broken economy that has followed the global market collapse of September 15, 2008.
How We Work
- We provide free
professional development training to unemployed and under-employed
professionals who agree to donate their services to the business
community as volunteers participating on a per project basis. This contribution from
our members to the economy of Maine creates a highly skilled and
cost-effective resource pool for
entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations across the state to draw from.
Working together as a team with our clients, members help guide,
launch or expand the small businesses that create jobs in Maine.
- Members of WORK it UP are trained under a curriculum developed with funding assistance from the Project Management Institute’s Education Foundation. The WORK it UP Certified Associate Project Manager (CAPM) Training provides both classroom instruction in project management as well as the opportunity to apply these techniques on client projects. The Your Team program brings clients and members together to learn about the latest collaborative workplace trends and practice the skills of Virtual Team collaboration including Virtual Project Management and the tools and technologies of Cloud Computing. Click to see the 2012 Professional Development Schedule
So Far
- In addition to its work with existing businesses, WORK it UP served from 2009 - 2011 as “Professional In
Residence” at the Maine Center for Enterprise Development mentoring the entrepreneurs of MCED’s
small business incubator.
- WORK it UP has been an all-volunteer program since 2009. In that time it has delivered dozens of successful projects. Its training programs and project management curriculum have stimulated re-employment for hundreds of members and benefited numerous companies throughout Maine who would otherwise have been unable to meet the challenges of the current economy.
- In 2012 WORK it UP will continue to serve as the Project Management resource to the partners of the Campus Ventures program - a collaboration between the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development and the Department of External Programs at the Gorham campus of the University of Southern Maine.
- Under the Campus Ventures program, WORK it UP project managers and member Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) will provide both business guidance and technical assistance to entrepreneurs engaged in start-up enterprises. These new companies are designed to bring new products and research to market with help from teams of students enrolled in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) curriculum at the University of Southern Maine.
Why did we start WORK it UP?
WORK it UP was created as an outcome of the market collapse of September 15, 2008 and the current economic and unemployment crisis that has ensued.
The unemployment rate, based on the number of people who have actively looked for jobs in the prior 4 weeks, recently topped 9.5% in Maine.
The real unemployment rate is currently 15.5%, or 1 out of every 6 people, including those who have given up looking for work and those who are marginally employed because they cannot find a suitable job or a job appropriate for their education or experience level according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The New York Times reported on November 6, 2009: “Nearly 16 million people are now unemployed and more than seven million jobs have been lost since late 2007”.
Charles Colgan, University of Southern Maine Professor and member of the Maine State Consensus Economic Forecasting Commission told the State Legislature’s Appropriations Committee “the recession has cost 27,000 jobs in Maine and will subtract a total of 34,000 before leveling off”.
The recovery of the job market lags the recovery of the economy as a whole, meaning that a return to full employment is years away.
Business closures, layoffs, and the related loss of wages have put a crimp in state tax revenues as well. The single largest source of Maine state revenue, the individual income tax, continues to be significantly below projections. According to recent data, the revenues were $19 million under estimates in October 2009, or 15.2 percent off projections. Maine has a $640 million budget shortfall (21.4% of the state general fund budget) in FY 2010, projected to grow to $765 million shortfall (25.5%) in FY 2011.