Employment Services Available to Southern Humboldt Job Seekers and Businesses
Leann Greene, HWC Business Service Coordinator for Southern Humboldt
Southern Humboldt now has a dedicated Business Service Coordinator for the Humboldt Workforce Coalition (HWC). Redway resident, Leann Greene was hired by HWC as the area’s Business Service Coordinator in June and has been doing outreach to residents and businesses in Southern Humboldt as she implements HWC’s mission: “Bringing together resources that meet employer and employee needs, to advance the prosperity of our communities.”
The HWC offers services ranging from creating resumes to vocational training for job seekers while providing training assistance and hiring incentives to employers, among other services. Greene stated that training new employees can be cost prohibitive to employers, but the HWC is willing to help as they connect job seekers with living wage jobs.
According to Greene, the average living wage, currently, in Humboldt County is just over $21 an hour. The HWC understands that some people may not be earning a living wage and is dedicated to training a local workforce for living wage employment. “When an employer is offering $18 an hour, we take the job because we need to pay our bills; …but we also understand that might not be a long-term job. …We want to get you into some skilled work, and hopefully work you love and enjoy,” she stated.
As the cannabis economy free-falls, many in Southern Humboldt are searching for a job. Greene is hoping that those in need will reach out to her. “I really want to encourage people that are frustrated and leaving the cannabis industry and assure them that there are great jobs in Humboldt County,” she said.
One of Greene’s goals as the Business Service Coordinator is to remove barriers to services, many of which are only available at the county seat of Eureka; a drive that is up to two hours away for some residents. Greene has office hours monthly in Garberville but is doing significant outreach to bring the HWC services to residents in the rural communities in which they live. In coordination efforts through community centers and event gatherings, Greene is travelling the vast Southern Humboldt landscape offering help to those in need.
Ultimately, Greene would like to see a robust local economy in Southern Humboldt, attracting quality employers to the area. However, finding skilled laborers in the past has been an issue to development. “Our main mission is to create a workforce that helps entice businesses to come set up in Humboldt County. Right now, we have great resources [and] businesses are very interested in Humboldt County but when it comes to workforce development, we kind of fall flat,” she said.
The HWC currently works with the College of the Redwoods as an educational partner offering training opportunities to job seekers. Greene said that the HWC is looking to expand educational opportunities by partnering with Cal Poly Humboldt and various trade schools including the local beauty college to offer a wider range of training programs to meet the needs of Humboldt County businesses.
Currently, Greene said, the number one area of job growth is in the healthcare sector, however, in the next few years, large development projects in Humboldt will create thousands of skilled labor jobs. The hope is to create a workforce that will encourage growth and economic stability for the area.
Greene is available in-person at the Garberville Complex on Cedar Street from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the second Wednesday of every month or at the various outreach events she’ll be attending. For more information on those events, or to schedule a meeting with Greene, email her at [email protected] or leave a phone message for her through the main office at (707) 441-5627.
Note: At the time of this interview, the news had yet to break about the PG&E issues that could hinder development in Southern Humboldt.
This article is written by Lisa Music, a local freelance journalist. To reach Lisa about tips, questions or comments, email her at [email protected]
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What jobs. Said nothing. What a joke California turned into. People run far fast. That place a disaster. Yuck so what jobs. She said 0
Well, 3 hours a month, that’s gonna help…
Your biggest employer, SHCHD, is run by idiots who are terrible employers…
Jerold Phelps Hospital: “We fire everyone”…
As “the cannabis economy collapses”, the best thing we can say about SoHum is:
They had a chance to build something great, but they all got stoned, down at ShopSmart parking lot, and blew it”…
Nice knowing you, now move to Vacaville or Los Banos or Fresno, or Arkansas… Hey! Bakersfield!
If you want a regular job, you are an unusual sort, there in “Disneyland for Druggies”…
“Help Wanted” signs are absolutely everywhere else, so go look for them!
I got Emails last week: $5000/week, $130/hour to go back to work…
Opportunity is everywhere, everywhere else but Humboldt.
Los Banos. You can shovel shit for minimum wage, work at a gas station, fast food restaurant, or a motel.
And smell shit all day.
What were you saying about Los Banos?
Lovely Los Banos!
Plenty of housing, abundant employment opportunities, and beautiful Modesto is nearby!
Or jet on over to Gilroy!
Los Banos is the answer!
Escape the sewer of SoHum! You won’t miss it a bit!
As much as you complain about Humboldt and being joyous to leave it (kudos to you), you sure are stuck in its comment section.
Just pointing it out.
Well, that’s polite, for you!
It’s entertaining, and you might learn something…
I don’t race to comment about every item, either, and I take vacations from commenting, to reestablish my perspective, from time to time…
I don’t live there now, but I keep a space open for a place I truly love but can’t really tolerate on a daily basis…
And here’s one for you:
https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/2022/09/22/toss-in-your-job-and-make-300k-working-for-a-dao-heres-how
Attitude … “it goes a long ways”
Climate change and intensive industrial agriculture have turned the central valley into a living hell.
Climate change has turned the central valley into a living hell?
Seems extremely unlikely, do you have any proof for this wild assertion?
face it. your NOT employable. What’s your game plan Cramer ?
Worked for compensation my whole life, age 10 – 66… If I couldn’t get a regular job I would drive UBER, LYFT, Doordash, or deliver newspapers if I had to…
I don’t have to work anymore, but I am educated and in possession of a California Professional Licence, and I get constant pleas to come to work…
COVID ruined healthcare, and employers are begging for help.
If you don’t make enough money, in this country, you are not trying very hard…
I don’t beg for work, work begs for me…
yea starting with 3 or 4 negative comments will surely inspire them.
not addressed specifically to you, but while im writing, undergraduate level economics suggests that to have an economy, there needs to be some resource extraction or else manufacturing (preferably both) or a tertiary resource. Arcata survives on the tertiary resource of the University bringing in state salaries and the steady flow of students who also bring in dollars extracted or manufactured somewhere else.
so what few trees we have grown back since the 70s can be logged now in 5 years and then we wait fro them to grow again. we could focus on their management more, or we could bring in a manufacturing sector and put it in myers flat or on the tooby park flat.
before you start screaming at me, i’m not endorsing these ideas, but facts is facts. im talking about the foundation of the modern economy. we have had logging and ranching. that transferred to marijuana which stood as the resource for 40 years. its appears gone.
another option, than bringing new work, is to let all the young people move away to where those things do happen and let this become a retirment community. can the healthcare system be built up? or can the community return to a ranching community with large parcels?
i dont have answers, but i see a need for some kind of a plan besides hopes and dreams. this lady seems nice. im not cutting her down. this kind of planning is at the board of supervisors level. in concert with the community of southern humboldt. i am saying though, that if we dont make a plan we will fail into one. that seems dumb.
my wish had been that the small, organic growers would be supported. i thought we had a good economy that needed environmental rules established for it, Thats essentially what happened for the logging industry. They were a hot mess throught the 80s and fought progress every redneck step of the way.
but with pot the county was so greedy that only the giant farms everyone wanted curtailed are the ones that could hope to survive. So many people have lost so much money that this story is maddening honestly. so utterly frustrating.
it doesnt matter though because the deep price drop is due to regional issues of overproduction and lack of market that have nothing to do with local ordinances drawn up with wringing out
now we are in jeopary of being like small towns everywhere. and it seems only a plan for the underpinning of an economy can save us. Maybe Michelle Bushnell can get southern humboldt a branch of the fiber cable going to arcata? then we could be a part of the digital age.
the only communitie that pick back up have plans to replace the base of their economy. tourism is not sufficient. its a lovely adjunct, but not for the basis of the economy.
where is the income to support small business going to arise from. or will this area return to being a, quiet poor ag town? that’s ok with me, but i then we should see an end to the pathetic, “we are going to make a place for you” programs that arent true because they dont have any economic foundation to possibly follow through on. use that money to build houses for the current homeless population.
wheres our economic plan?
“Small Farmers” would not ever have saved the industry.
Humboldt wants tax revenue, so that the Supervisors can steal it, and direct funding to their friends and families.
You feel cheated, but, basic economics make basic things necessary, like income and spending, business and customers…
Obviously, it’s best to find a niche, and occupy it, like the folks who are selling you the above services, for a salary!
Where do you think “The HWC” came from?
Grants, developments, educated people who know how to earn a living!
This piece is glossy advertising for a service which really exists, in somebody’s universe, whether it really can help SoHum or not!
It’s their JOB! They get PAID!
In Sohum, you don’t have a lot of choices, and even if you become an NP or a PA or an MBA or a damn Lawyer, you will probably leave for a nicer salary, a better place to live etc…
There’s jobs, but not great jobs, in SoHum, and the odds are good, but the goods are odd…
Bad employers, poor management, mission drift and, corruption plus nepotism will ruin most regular employment in SoHum, and poor compensation with high cost of living, will destroy the labor market, for everyone else.
Econ 101: Highly recommended.
Find a niche. Occupy it for all it’s worth. If you lose it, find another one… This is my best advice!
If you can’t find a niche, work for the government…
OH and Mrs Bushnell is incompetent, unqualified, and unfit to serve, due to her many conflicts of interest.
Michelle should be recalled… She hates SoHum anyway…
Some mornings you stretch my patience.
It’s free speech to declare “Michelle should be recalled.” You have the right to speak your mind. BUT what part of a rational discussion is making up wild statements like “She hates SoHum anyway…” Stop attacking people and places just because you are in an unpleasant mood. Please consider the rest of us that have to pick our way gingerly across the muck you’ve spewed.
Honestly, some subjects presented in items here are downright comical, and the idea that picking one poor quality candidate out of the many poor quality candidates who ran for Estelle’s seat, and then charging her to “fix everything” is a epitome of ridiculousness…
I sincerely hope that this group can help someone who needs work, but I have strong reservations about its efficacy where SoHum is concerned…
No reflection upon you or your business model, but I consider Mrs Bushnell to be an example of bad government in action, and I have to continue to question her motivations.
all this word salad youve just spewed brings down the potential of a golden resource offered by Ms. Kemp. if you would just read and not spew when you dont have anything substantial to add, it would elevate the conversation and the potential for the community to have a central table to converse around.
theres a reason kids have their own table at holiday gatherings.
OH I disagree, and I aim to stimulate reasonable discourse, spirited discussion and possibly the coaxing of a solution from general existential chaos.
I donate to RHBB and support Ms Kemp’s work in every way.
California is one of the wealthiest states in the nation. In fact taxes paid by California’s support conservative welfare states. But Humboldt county is certainly in shambles. There’s nothing on the horizon that will replace black market cannabis.
Expecting a black market to save a community is like expecting a bank robber to pay taxes on his thefts. It’s just delusional.
it did save the community. Sohum would have resembled other logger X ghost towns by 2000 if it wasn’t for weed. weed was here for one reason and that reason is now gone. in ten years Garberville will be a ghost town.
Not quite sure about that. There’s the Nordic Fish Farm, optic fiber line from Singapore, Cal Poly and potential off coast wind farms all planned. Guess I’m a ‘glass half full’ kind of person.
Will we see your glass fill any time soon? Fiber is not a jobs creator, the other two you mention Nordic and wind farm are ten years out. Your glass is taking a long time to fill.
I started in healthcare this year.
I like it.
Add to that a cool climate while the rest of CA is cooking, real estate is doing great (as long as you aren’t trying to sell your pot farm of course), grape growing is becoming more of a thing, maybe throw in some tourism.
You mean the overly taxed Californians pay for the welfare of our corrupt state leaders and businesses that pay to play in “campaign donations”. California is forcing businesses and the middle class to abandone this state so they can survive. California will soon be a state of the rich and the poor. The poor will depend on the rich to survive and we see how that has worked out for the homeless. Newsome is only concerned on making California the “first” in green to boaster his dream of presidency even though our infrastructures are failing. The residents of California will be required to pay a high price for PGE upgrades while Newsome continues with his double standard rules for government, businesses and those of us who are required to pay for shareholder profits.
Curious how famers can and have made a living selling tomatoes for a couple of dollars a pound, but dope growers can’t make a living at a few hundred dollars a pound.
Doesn’t make any kind of sense.
In your alternative reality, there is going to be catastrophic global warming due to co2, right?
Wouldn’t that make the cool part of Humboldt county very attractive to “climate refugees” as a place to move to?
There is a silver lining to every delusional cloud.
ya those backyard banks and paying people under the table really helped
cannabis industry has gone by the way side up here. It’s cheaper to grow elsewhere
“If” you have a reliable vehicle , you will be putting at least 100 miles a day on it to travel to and from work. With the price of fuel, this will cost you about 2 hours of your daily check. Plus your 8 hour day just turned into 10 hours if you count drive time. With the worst roads in the nation, you will need a new front end every 6 months. As my Hispanic friends used to say “mucho trabajo para poco dinero”. Due to the long distances, I think the costs of working in humboldt outweigh the benefits. You will essentially be paying to work, instead of getting paid to work. Kiss your family time goodbye, and if you homestead, you will have no time to tend your land.
Well said. I drive 3 hour commute to north of airport and back. We pay the highest prices for fuel, food in nation to live in a dumpster where people feel sorry for the shitbags living in the camps trashing our area. This place is on a collision course.
You would be happy living in a camp?
and of course you voted … voted for change .
That’s price you pay for living so far away and spread out. Move to eureka and get a job.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall when they get their first paycheck “what the hell, half has gone in taxes and now I’ve got to pay for my healthcare and my own food”
The problem is and always will be that if you put your work history in the cannabis industry on your resume people’s bias generally keeps you out of a job. It’s unfortunate, but the stigma is not gone. The tendency is also why people are willing to ignore the fact our local government baited and switched family farmers and charged them exorbitant fees to get permitted. They intentionally destroyed our most valuable economy. It was a wealth consolidation into the pockets of County elite and their friends. Cannabis work is real work, and it is SKILLED labor. We need to start preparing for mass homelessness and drug abuse getting way worse. When you take away hope and families ability to feed themselves there is a major fall out. Look what happened with the loss of logging and meth in our county
The county ignorant officials did ruin humboldt and mendocino. They set it up for failure by over regulation overly high fees and taxes only helping their cronies and family to get permitted first which is typical corruption and dragging their feet to get permitted farms rolling. Only people to blame are county leaders. They did not do their job. Now we are left in the dust. It is a desolate ghost county now with no work no money. Plenty of fentanyl and crime around though. The golden era of cannabis is over the money is gone and nothing will ever replace it. Just cattle ranching which benefits no one but the ranch owners. That’s it little logging no fishing no cannabis no other industry. Just mountains potholes cattle ranchers drug addicts and criminals in the mountains now. Used to be dirty people and rich growers now it’s just dirty people and very few normal people. Thanks county leaders.
Did the local government intentionally destroy the family farmers or were they just so greedy (especially the crazy sq ft tax) that it pushed farms that direction? Seems like the over supply from down south (white side) and out of state (black side) were bigger issues and beyond local control.
Please tell me the last year that pound prices were higher than the year before.
This woman is living in a dream world.
Actual work is too hard! Too many younger folk think the good life should be there for them, like the Kardashians. Social media has fucked up too many people, making them think they don’t have to make an effort. And the citizenship awards given to kids in schools isn’t helping. The downward spiral continues.
If you think this service is going to find jobs for everyone looking you have no brains. How can that service provide jobs with enough pay to support one person. Minimum wage won’t get you a rental, buy gas for your car, if you have one, food for the month or any medical bills, and the list goes on. Your best chance is to save your money until you have enough to get out of California! If you are here illegally, please stop by Sacramento and pick up your nonresident California ID Card. It is free. Give Newsom your middle finger and hit the road.
At $21 an hour you have to share an apartment with strangers. That’s not a living wage. Minimum wage should be enough for a person to afford a two bedroom apartment on their own.
Move to 1965
Sorry to break this to you, but raising the minimum wage will also raise rents and just about every other product and service. The only true solution to a living wage is improving your skills and education.
I don’t know about that. My first jobs besides under-the-table farm work were at McDonald’s and cleaning motel rooms. Minimum wage in those days meant i could share a house with several other young people, with a less than one-bedroom-to-one-person ratio. I did not think that was unjust… i was 16 to 22 years old working shitty unskilled jobs; why would i expect a one-bedroom apartment of my own, much less a two-bedroom?
I often wonder about that when i see well-intentioned people bemoaning the fact that the average 2-BR apt. in this country or state requires making around $30/hour, maybe 2 or 3 times the minimum wage. But why would minimum wage workers expect to live with 800 s.f. or more all their own? The $30/hour job required would easily be covered by sharing with a roommate. If they were your lover, you’d share the rent and also have an extra bedroom/office/guest room. I don’t see how that is so punitive, assuming it would only go on for a couple of years at most before you’d be making more than minimum wage.
If we raise the minimum wage to $1000/hour, everybody would be rich.😁
however, in the next few years, large “development projects in Humboldt will create thousands of skilled labor jobs.”
What large development projects?
People complain about there not being solutions to the communities problems, then proceed to complain about the solutions presented. It’s not going to be easy and it might take some trial and error but at least she is stepping up and trying to help. Maybe she won’t be able to help everyone but I appreciate the effort she is putting into this issue.
You mean the 3hrs once a month. Lol
when your on welfare it’s easier to complain … welcome to the new democracy
There will never be growth in Southern Humboldt , being unincorporated all the money go’s north and stays there. Cannabis was declining even before the county taxed its ppl into poverty to line their own pockets. The greed of the area will keep any type of development out and most of the stores and homes will stay filled with mold, infested and disgusting. Our schools will continue to be a joke and the town will die a slow death, the only two places booming the hospital because ppl are sick with stress and the credit union as they fine and repo all the struggling citizens.
It’s really sad that one of the only ways out of this mess is by putting some corporation warehouse nearby for droves of the poor to work for minimum wage to make the rich richer. The state needs to be accountable for their greed and we have no representation in politics by the people in this community. And the ones who are… have their hands in pockets and are using their place to get ahead. Not naming names but anyone in sohum can guess. I am frequently appalled at the underlying thread of poverty that runs generations deep here. These people have been victims of the system long before they turned to growing to pay bills. Check out ACES reports in this county. It is a sign of failure from every agency in this state on behalf of the youth and residents of this place.
Knowing nothing, I got curious and took a deeper dive to learn who the HCW is, and what the goals are. In case you wonder too, here are a couple of helpful links.
https://www.gohumco.com/168/Humboldt-County-Workforce-Coalition
https://www.gohumco.com/DocumentCenter/View/137/2018-to-2023-Comprehensive-Development-Strategy-PDF
I’m almost afraid to post this as it may bring the haters out in droves but I assure you , I only have the best of intentions as I read the sad stories of folks not being able to make ends meet. I want to tell people that there are other places to live besides here in Humboldt. I have my primary home in southeastern WI. Small town of 6000 people. Has everything you need. Just for demographics it’s 98.6% Caucasian. Been there about 12 years. Every interaction I have is nice. People are kind, well mannered, good community involvement and support. People hold the door and say good morning even if they don’t know you. Town is well cared for and crime is nothing. I don’t lock my doors or my car. People pitch in to help those in need, we have multiple good food banks and church’s that assist people with their rent and things they need for their kids. The schools are great, there are plentiful jobs and it is beautiful. forests and lakes, plentiful state parks and all the recreational activities you would ever want; both summer and winter. Amazon is nearby . I was sitting at my local auto repair place listening to a young 30 something girl telling the owner she works all day Saturday and Sunday right now because Amazon let’s her work overtime on the weekends and she get 37$ an hour on overtime. She has benefits. The cost of living there is about 60% of here. Last week when I was home gas was 3.49 and people are mad about it. Ok now the things folks from here may not like. It is republican. Old school….work hard for what you have and be grateful type folks. And drug use and crime is not accepted or tolerated. I love all these things so it’s all good. Please don’t take this the wrong way. I’m trying to show you there is hope and other options. That is all. Humboldt has great beauty but the overall COL price and social price is too high. Lots of other beautiful places in this country .
Great post! If anyone is feeling there are no good options you’ve got to look elsewhere. A new environment can make all the difference. Life’s endless possibilities will present themselves when you commit to the change.
Not all growers are stupid. Many transitioned as soon as I went legal. Lots of Moms at tdad school saw the writing on the wall, the easy life was over , no more extensive vacations, yoga and coffee or wine with pals. They went back to school for 2 reasons, firstly to bag an easy going gov job on completion and secondly to keep the hubby off their back about getting a job. They are quite cunning.
Could be worse… In Wisconsin they pay you federal minimum wage and not a penny more.
As for Humboldt… Let this year’s outdoor price be the eye opener. Next year I’m just buying my neighbors when it’s done lol. Cheaper than growing it myself.
Where I live there are $20 an hour jobs all over the place for starting wage …..which is a good wage when gas, housing and utilities are 40% less.
I assume your not in Wisconsin. 20$ an HR is literally 3x more than the Social Security Administration in Milwaukee pays a 9-5 administrative assistant with an AD.
The person who works in this position should be in Eureka 3 hours a month and SoHum the rest of the time. The current setup is backward.
She is in SoHum pretty much all the time as she lives here. Greene has set hours at the library only once a month but is available at local events and by email all the time to set up appointments. I could be wrong, but I think she only goes north for trainings with the main office.
According to Greene, the average living wage, currently, in Humboldt County is just over $21 an hour. Are there benefits too ?
I just want to say, on this wonderful public forum, that picture of Leann is gorgeous. I’m in love.