Workforce Summit and Connect for Good

This week, I had the opportunity to attend two events that really highlight the reason that Grand Junction is a city that I love.

On Wednesday, Mesa County Workforce hosted the 2025 Mesa County Workforce Summit at CMU. The day started off with CMU President, John Marshall, sharing some of the innovative work the University has been doing.

CMU is making higher education more accessible in our community through offering free education for students in households earning less than $70,000 per year, as well mobile learning labs that help provide hands on learning experiences off site.

One of the sessions that resonated with me as an Executive Director of a nonprofit with limited resources, discussed Creative Benefits (Investing in Employees Without Breaking the Bank). Emilee Powell with Housing Resources of Western Colorado and Pam Francil with Colorado Housing & Finance (CHFA) discussed different ways for businesses to help employees expand their housing options including down payment assistance and some financing options. Emilee also shared a brief overview of some of the many resources available to help people in our community work towards homeownership. More information is available at Housing Resources of Western Colorado.

Mike Ritter, with Business Incubator Center shared about the resources available to provide upskill training for employees. Local businesses can connect with the Business Incubator Center to tailor valuable trainings for staff to increase their skillsets and grow.

During lunch, keynote speaker Andreas Mueller-Schubert of Grand Junction Chamber Commerce, discussed the ways in which artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the current workforce, along with ways to integrate AI into workflow to streamline operations, enhance decision-making, and expand workforce capacity ethically while maintaining human-centric workplaces. As a newer technology, AI has many pros and cons that should be considered, and protecting the human workforce has become a real issue in many industries.

Thursday brought the first Connect for Good luncheon, which gathered business leaders, nonprofits, government officials, and community members together to discuss pressing issues in the community and ways to bridge personal divides in order to create meaningful impact in the community together. The Connect for Good luncheons are scheduled for the last Thursday of each month and provide a meaningful way for caring members of the community to gather and create a lasting positive impact together.