The Employment Services Centre of Prescott and Russell has celebrated its 40th anniversary.
On September 26, centre held its annual general meeting and reception at the Vankleek Hill Vineyard.
The centre was founded in 1983 as Action Consultation Employment and it became the Employment Services Centre of Prescott and Russell in 1991. Headquartered in Hawkesbury, the centre added an office in Rockland in 1993 and an Embrun office in 1997. In 2009, it became the local provider of Employment Ontario services on behalf of the provincial government. Contak Staffing Solutions became a division of the centre in 2017.
A series of partnerships between the centre and various businesses, institutions, and agencies have been developed over the years. The centre’s Executive Director, Caroline Arcand, called those partnerships the biggest source of success for the agency.
“Without these partnerships, we would not be in a position to move forward as an organization,” she said.
The centre’s board Chair, Lionel Renaud, echoed those remarks and said those partnerships have led to shared opportunities for the centre and other organizations.
More than 50 organizations are partnered with the employment services centre.
According to its 2022-2023 annual report, the Employment Services Centre of Prescott and Russell provided individual counselling and support services to 3,017 clients during the past year. The average age of those clients was 41, and 51 per cent of clients were male. Out of the clients served, 52 per cent had an educational level of grade 12 or less. During 2022-2023, the centre’s online job bank advertised 2,378 positions and 39 per cent of those were filled by job seekers.
