WORK it UP was established by unemployed Professional Project Managers (PMPs), certified by PMI, who understood that their vision of contributing directly to the development Maine's economy would be a major project in itself. As any veteran project manager would do, they began their work by assessing the circumstances they found themselves in.

 

There was no organization - public or private - that had a solution to meet the needs of the struggling unemployed professionals and small businesses of Maine that had been negatively impacted as an outcome of the market collapse in September of 2008. The founding members of WORK it UP were the first to propose the possibility that experienced capable professionals could make a difference to the state's economy by lending their expertise to small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and the individual efforts of entrepreneurs throughout the Greater Portland business community.

 

WORK it UP was conceived as a social entrepreneurial project that would unite two halves of the broken economy in a single long-term project to collaborate on solutions that would restore prosperity to Maine. Joining forces with the leaders of the local chapter of PMI, the members of WORK it UP made an application to the Project Management Institute Educational Foundation to design and develop a comprehensive training program to educate professionals on the science of Project Management. With a Seed Grant from PMI EF the WORK it UP CAPM (Subject Matter Expert) Training Program was created to teach teams of professionals how to help small businesses design and execute the business change initiatives that would help them survive and grow despite the hostile economic climate.

By the end of 2011, dozens of companies have had the benefit of WORK it UP's assistance in the form of teams of our member professionals who work alongside of business owners over an 8-10 week pilot project. Typical projects have included process re-engineering, market research, implementation planning, growth planning and other business development activities.

 

 

 

WORK it UP measures its success in the fulfillment of its mission in two ways: 1), the companies who benefit from the volunteer teams who help them reach their goals and, 2), by the individual members of the organization. Oddly enough, Project Management is just as important a tool for people as it is for businesses. The original goal of the organization was to find a new way to help get our under-employed and unemployed members back to work sooner than conventional methods have historically been able to accomplish.

 

In today's employment market, at a time when businesses of every size are reluctant to take on the responsibility of hiring a new employee, those in search of employment must have a distinctive advantage over their competition and apply a different process to their re-employment effort.  Many people imagine that the measure of success for WORK it UP could be totaled by the number of people we have been able to place in a new and meaningful employment opportunity. This is a fallacy for two reasons. First, we are not an employment or a placement agency. Second, if there are no new jobs for professionals being created none can be filled. So what can we offer our member professionals in the way of re-employment assistance?

 

The answer is a chance to transform themselves as candidates better prepared for the new economic reality they are faced with. We accomplish this by introducing them to emerging trends and technologies in the workplace and also by giving them the classroom training and direct practical experience of applying these skills.  If it is true that we are in a 'jobless recovery', then it falls to the vast number of unemployed professionals (As many as 30,000 in the state of Maine alone) with their cumulative multiple decades of hard-won experience and the formidable wisdom they possess, to lead the way by helping businesses see and understand that with focused planning and careful execution companies can become more profitable and better able to hire employees.

 

In the most practical sense, WORK it UP has proved to be something more than it was first imagined  - it has become an important station in the process of metamorphosis which those displaced by the economic downturn must endure. WORK it UP has become the place our members come to, figuratively and literally, when, after months of futile effort applying for employment opportunities, they conclude that combing the on-line job boards and want ads and submitting dozens of resumes without any plausible response will not provide the opportunity they are seeking.

 

For our members, the Project Management and the associated business professional development training we offer on a quarterly basis is a new beginning. Most of our members arrive as subject matter experts in their own right. They have spent most of their professional careers learning how to master their occupation. With the help of our CAPM and other training programs, our members discover the new approach that project management methodology teaches: how to get complex tasks accomplished successfully on time and in budget.