Meet the Saco River Dyehouse
Maine - Meet the Saco River Dyehouse
Workforce Success Story Submitted By: Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc.
Workforce Challenge
Focused principally on skein dyeing, the Saco River Dyehouse conducts labor-intensive hands on manufacturing processes that rely on precise dye measurement and collaboration of temperature and water flow to preserve yarns comprised of soft advanced materials. Processing these fibers is complex, and few manufacturers in the nation do this work. However the skilled workforce needed for this work did not exist in southern Maine.
Workforce Solution
Training its employees to be productive, committed to strong customer service and passionate about advanced textile manufacturing, the Saco River Dyehouse reached out to the workforce system for assistance in meeting their goals as a new business getting off the ground. Since 2012, through collaboration with Coastal Counties Workforce and its service provider, Goodwill Workforce Solutions, the Saco River Dyehouse has partnered to serve ten dislocated workers or underemployed adults with barriers by employing them full time through on the job training services to ensure that they would positively retain their positions. Additionally, over fifteen youth participants in the region have been placed in paid work experiences and have received hands-on learning opportunities to explore skill development in textiles manufacturing. Several of these youth have taken the next step and actually began new careers as employees of the company! The Dyehouse has also been able to provide valuable hands-on training to its employed workforce to help several associates learn new competencies and advance in wage level. Lastly, because of the relationship built, the business services representative has been able to introduce the Dyehouse to other partners who now provide employment and economic development support to the company, as it plans for future growth. Such partners include the Maine CareerCenter, the Maine Community College system, the Maine Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and Maine Technology Institute.
Outcomes & Benefits
The Saco River Dyehouse has truly been an outstanding example of an employer committed to working alongside the workforce development system in providing opportunity to jobseekers and workers in our local communities. The relationship built embodies the spirit of collaboration as identified by the new Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. Thank you to the Saco River Dyehouse for working together and being selected as the Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc., Employer of the Year.
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