As part of a new community service project, the Ithaca College American Marketing Association is working to create better marketing strategies for the Women’s Opportunity Center.

The center helps displaced homemakers and women from low-income families re-enter the workforce by offering programming to help them find jobs with livable wage employers, Celia Miller, assistant director at the center, said. Any business offering wages above $11 an hour qualifies.  

Senior Amanda Raines, vice president of community service for the ICAMA, said she discovered the center after attending the association’s 30-year anniversary last month along with the Women in Business Network and the interim dean of the business school, Mark Cordano.

Cordano has since made an effort to involve student organizations with any upcoming events.

“It’s the small little things that help out down there because they’re so understaffed for what they do,” he said.  

The ICAMA hopes to help women like Jane Johnson, who was referred three weeks ago to the center by the Tompkins County Department of Social Services with hopes of learning more about the retail trade.

Johnson is now part of the center’s training program at Seconds on Court, a resale clothing boutique in downtown Ithaca. She said she prefers her current job over a department store job.

“It’s much better than going to a department store like Kohl’s and being pushed onto the retail floor,” she said.

Johnson said the center serves as “truly a classroom to learn” but needs advertisements.

“I didn’t even know this place was here until three weeks ago,” she said. “It definitely needs more recognition.”  

The ICAMA looks to turn the center’s business around by assisting them on matters of advertising, marketing and community outreach.  

Two years ago, the center started its most recent training program at Seconds on Court. Directed by store manager Georgann Oman, the store operates as an internship catering to women interested in the retail business. Oman said she looks forward to any help the students may offer.

“Since we’re a nonprofit we have zero advertising budget,” Oman said. “For this to be a viable business we have to advertise. Hopefully these kids from Ithaca can help us.”  

After learning more about the center and the troubles they were facing, Raines proposed that

ICAMA make the center the focus of its community service projects for the duration of the semester and into the spring. Last Monday, Raines outlined their marketing and advertising strategies along with senior Juliann Bertone, president of ICAMA, in a meeting with the center.  

“They were so thrilled because they feel like they have a lot on their plate as far as advertising and marketing,” Raines said.  

To assist the women in finding jobs, the center provides workshops on interviewing and preparing résumés or cover letters as well as computer classes that familiarize the women with programs like Windows Vista and XP. Those who cannot afford appropriate job attire can turn to the center’s dressing room for clothing. Women may also apply for free bus passes and taxi grants.  

The training program at Seconds on Court combines work experience with daily lessons and bookwork, Oman said. A series of levels tracks their progress in the program and is based solely on their level of understanding. Oman said each student spends a different amount of time interning.  

“We try to tailor the program to each person,” she said. “It all depends on what they want to get out of it and what position they are able to get in the outside world.”  

Raines said the first order of business is to create a new logo that can be used to help advertise for the center. ICAMA also plans to revitalize the center’s Web site and use the new logo in a poster campaign, with special attention to outlying areas of Tompkins County that the center struggles to reach. In addition to the advertising campaign, Raines said the association plans to enlist the help of other clubs at the college in making a collegewide clothing drive for Seconds on Court.  

“We want to spread the word around the Ithaca campus to let students know that they can donate to the center at any time,” she said.  

Miller said the center has met all of their goals for this year, enrolling about 600 women in the  program and securing jobs for 200. Oman hopes the help of ICAMA will improve a program that has already proven to be widely successful.

She said she believes the program will benefit from more exposure.

“We have business, but we sure could use more,” Oman said. “Without customers our students won’t have the chance to wait on anyone, and they won’t learn anything.”