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Salisbury Rowan Community Action Agency Board, Executive Director and Program Director are working with staff to increase recruitment to the Hispanic community. Unemployment/Underemployment In the last year, no significant job growth has occurred in either Rowan or Cabarrus counties. This continues to impact our service area tremendously and high unemployment rates keep our waiting lists above 50 in Rowan County and 30 in Cabarrus. The long waits to receive services has forced us develop a different approach to our intake strategy. We have found that constituents in need of self - sufficiency services do not want to wait six months to a year. Therefore we have attempted to ssend letters of interest first to persons on the wait list and found that many have moved or are difficult if unable to contact. There are some distinguishable differences anecdotally, between the counties and the services requested. In Rowan more of the applicants need additional training and jobs. In Cabarrus, people have had jobs, lost there due to a variety of factors and are seeking re- employment. On some levels, Cabarrus residents have had higher educational attainment prior to applying. However people still come to SRCAA affected by mill closings, Phillip Morris closing and in Rowan a possible outsourcing by Westinghouse will add to more job elimination. As of October 30, 2013 the current unemployment rate for Rowan County is 9.7% or six thousand nine hundred and twenty nine (6,929). People that are receiving benefits in Cabarrus County is lower at 8.7% or seven thousand nine hundred and seventy three (7,973). Cabarrus has more opportunities for growth and is adjacent to Mecklenberg County (Charlotte). Although Charlotte is about 45 miles from Rowan, more participants are choosing to look for jobs there. For lower paying jobs, transportation costs are cost prohibitive and severely impact the participants' personal budgets. EducationNocation The 2012 Closing the Gap, 2012 Skills Survey of NC conducted by the Centralina Workforce Development Board Report states that "National trends continue to indicate that communities throughout the country are facing current or imminent shortage of skilled workers to meet the demands of local employers ". This fact adds to the continued high unemployment rate and requires service providers to discuss alternative education /vocation options to attain the skills that employers want. Families are at risk due to the lack of jobs, not enough or the right education and skills for the jobs available. According to the census bureau North Carolina's High school graduation rate for persons over 25 is 84.1 %. In Cabarrus County, the graduation rate for this same group is 85.5% and persons with Bachelor's Degrees or higher is 24.1% compared to the states 26.5 %. In Rowan County, there is a marked difference. High school graduates over 25 years of age, is only 80.4 % and those with Bachelor's degrees or higher dips to 17.4 %. This explains why more requests in Rowan are for educationiskills training. Persons who are unemployed or underemployed are at risk for related social factors like mental health disorders, depression, drug and alcohol use, and anxiety and can experience compromised decision making regarding meeting the basic needs for their family. SRCAA provides more support for educational /vocational attainment than any other service request. Housing /Homelessness Homeownership rates in NC are approximately 68% of the population; in Rowan nearly 71% of the population are homeowners and nearly 74% of the population in Cabarrus are homeowners. Most of the persons served in the Self - Sufficiency program are not homeowners and are not eligible for Fiscal Year 2014 -15 Community Services Block Grant Application Page 19 of 49 Attachment number 2 G -2 Page 287