GCO welcomes Jace Brooks as Director of the
Gwinnett Workforce Initiative
March 2020 changed everything for Jace Brooks, as it did for so many Americans.
As a member of the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners, Jace had worked for years to bring together nonprofits with government resources in the human-services area. All of these efforts went into overdrive when the first case of COVID-19 arrived in Gwinnett County.
The global pandemic was no longer an abstract concept in the news—it was in our backyards impacting our neighbors. In a matter of months, Gwinnett County’s remarkable 2.4 percent unemployment rate spiked to 12.5 percent. Tens of thousands of residents were out of work, many of them homeless.
That’s when the Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) approached Jace about joining the team as a contractor to aid workforce development efforts in Gwinnett County. Initially, Jace worked to assemble a handful of service providers, nonprofits, schools, and employers to help the county’s struggling workers find stable work again. Those partnerships blossomed to over 25 organizations, companies, and schools, including Goodwill, Families First, Georgia Gwinnett College, the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, the public library system, Impact46, and the Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia.
The need hasn’t let up. In fact, it’s only growing, even as Gwinnett County rebounds from the economic shocks experienced in the spring. That is why GCO decided to bring on Jace full-time as our new Director of the Gwinnett Workforce Initiative.
“I have a deep love for Gwinnett County and the entire Atlanta metro region,” Jace says. “That’s been fostered through my service on the Suwanee City Council, the board of commissioners, and through volunteer time at my family’s church, Gwinnett Church. There are so many people struggling out there. I think of the single mom with a couple of kids, just looking for a place to stay or a meal. Through our partners, we can get her connected to all the right resources and move her from crisis to career. That is work so full of meaning, and I couldn’t be more excited to be on board with GCO.”
The Gwinnett Workforce Initiative is part of GCO’s broader effort to link underserved communities with the resources they need to thrive. It’s called Hiring Well, Doing Good (HWDG). This effort is based on the belief that a stable job is key to human flourishing. But it takes a concerted effort to come alongside struggling people to give them the resources, support, and training needed to succeed. And that help best comes from a bottom-up approach through our neighborhoods and communities, not top-down from government.