This week, Southeast AlabamaWorks – the workforce council that serves Pike County – announced that it will be dissolving and ceasing operations at the end of September, due to a loss in funding.

Southeast AlabamaWorks was founded in 2015 after the creation of the Alabama Workforce Council or AlabamaWorks. AlabamaWorks created seven regions to serve the local communities in the state. Region 6, or Southeast AlabamaWorks, serves Pike County along with Coffee, Barbour, Butler, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Geneva, Henry and Houston Counties. 

“We do a lot of work to connect businesses and industry to education and jobseekers,” Southeast AlabamaWorks Executive Director Katie Thomas said.

Southeast AlabamaWorks holds a number of events throughout the year, including its annual Southeast World of Works, a hands-on career exploration event for students. Thomas said that the event is held twice a year, on the east and west sides of the region, and more than 4,000 students and 500 volunteers took part in the events last year. 

Southeast AlabamaWorks also does an annual resume and interview contest for local high school seniors with the winner receiving a $1,000 scholarship. The organization also holds annual career fairs, STEM fairs and other workshops and panels throughout the year. 

All of that will end at the end of September, however. In 2024, the Alabama Legislature passed the Alabama Workforce Transformation Act, which removed the funding for all of the AlabamaWorks organizations.

“This is a direct result of legislation that passed in March 2024,” Thomas said of the decision to dissolve Southeast AlabamaWorks. “The Alabama Workforce Transformation Act is realigning workforce development across the state. In doing so, it restructures the dollars that were previously given to workforce development locally.” 

Thomas said Southeast AlabamaWorks was faced with either having to raise “half a million dollars” annually to keep the organization going or disolve. So far this year, three AlabamaWorks organizations have closed down and Southeast AlabamaWorks will be the fourth. 

The Alabama Workforce Transformation Act creates regional workforce boards but Thomas emphasized that those boards will not be doing the work that she and her team have been doing. 

“They have set up new regional workforce boards but they only oversee something called WIOA funding, a federal pot of money intended to help people with barriers to finding employment get jobs,” Thomas continued. “They are only overseeing the funding that goes directly to the career centers in the state. That does not involve any of the work that we were previously doing. So, there is a new board but it is not a replacement for Southeast AlabamaWorks.” 

Thomas emphasized that once Southeast AlabamaWorks is no longer doing its work, things will definitely change in this region.

“Our dissolution is going to leave a gap in helping people navigate workforce development resources,” she said. “It means people will have to rely solely on the workforce development directors at each community college and wait to see if any local jobs become available through the Department of Workforce. Career Centers have also had a reduction in staff this year, so they aren’t able to serve as many people as they used to.”

When an organization like Southeast AlabamaWorks closes, the attention will primarily go to those people the group impacts no longer having a vital resource for the community, but Thomas’ team is also directly impacted. Thomas, Dana Hendrix and Kathy Smyth make up the Southeast AlabamaWorks team.

“We’re all out of jobs after the dissolution,” said Thomas. “We’re all looking for new jobs and hoping to find somewhere to land. We have a host of skills and experience to offer, so we’re all looking for new opportunities.”

Still, Thomas said she and her team have work to do between now and September.

“We still have a full program of work between now and the end of September,” she emphatically said. “In July, we have two big events for STEM teachers and two conferences to attend. In August, we’re holding a career fair with the City of Dothan at the Dothan Civic Center where we’re hoping to have 80 employers there. In September, we already have a Workforce Champion Award with the Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce scheduled, as well.”