2022-05-13

Nearly three months since her last visit, Governor Kim Reynolds returned to The Well in Pella Friday. The State Workforce Development Quarterly Board Meeting was being hosted by the non-profit organization.

Jayson Henry is CEO of The Well and serves on that board, and says they offered up the opportunity to host the meeting, in part, to showcase the work happening locally to support individuals in a variety of ways.

“For our organization The Well, this is a great opportunity to network with other businesses and leaders in the state that have the same passions,” he says.

Reynolds says the purpose of this meeting and others with Iowa Workforce Development is to highlight re-employment programs in the state and showcase to others what is happening locally in education.

“We’ve been working on this for such a long time, and I really feel like we are really starting to see some great momentum–everything is coming together and starting to pay off,” Reynolds says. “So of course we have a lot work ahead of us, but the realignment from unemployment to reemployment to working with our schools to calling each and every school district about the opportunities in work-based learning and registered apprenticeship programs — and I can’t be in Pella without giving a shout out to the Pella Career Academy, you guys are doing what you should be and we lift them up all the time and connect other school districts to what they’re doing.”

She says there are also efforts to market the state externally in the “This is Iowa” campaign.