The BRAC Coach is an innovative electronic tool designed to bring crucial and immediate aid to individuals whose lives have been disrupted by the recently announced U.S. military installation closings and realignments. Developed by the United States Department of Labor, the BRAC Coach (BRAC stands for Base Realignment and Closure) identifies common issues and problems facing workers, businesses, and workforce staff who may be affected by the BRAC changes. In an easy to use format, the BRAC Coach provides step-by-step instructions to help users find and use national and local resources to help them face the challenges they are finding.
The BRAC Coach team established new content, edited and adapted existing example situations from other Coaches, and delivered a powerful system that provides referrals to three key audiences: workers, businesses, and workforce staff. The site links users to numerous appropriate web sites in the context of this initiative.
The BRAC Coach is receiving kudos from many organizations and has been praised by the Department of Defense - Office of Economic Adjustment and the Department of Labor – Assistant Secretary of Employment and Training.
For those who are interested in the technical development details: The BRAC Coach is "508 compliant" (accessible to individuals with handicaps) and was built using the Department of Labor's Workforce Connections/EZRO, an open source tool under the terms of the GNU General Public License. This software was developed by Devis® primarily under contract with the Department of Labor, including the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy (OASP), the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), the Employment and Training Administration (ETA), the Women's Bureau (WB), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the Mine Safety Health Administration (MSHA).
Workforce Connections/EZRO allows content to be reused and modified as appropriate for each audience. Workforce Connections/EZRO also allows subject matter experts to easily add content without having the knowledge of web language. See http://ezro.devis.com/Sites/Coach/ for additional applications of the OnLine Coach for various audiences.
About Development InfoStructure, Inc. (Devis)
Development InfoStructure, Inc. (Devis) was founded in 1992 to provide innovative, practical approaches to information management. Devis is a leading provider of IT Consulting services and solutions to Federal, State, and Local Governments as well as the international development community. Devis' standards-based, vendor-independent approach and active support of the open source community help maximize the return on clients' IT investments.
Press Inquiries:
Contact: Heidi Solis
Phone: 703.525.6485
Email: hsolis@devis.com
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