Green Honored by ROI Institute

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Posted on February 14, 2019

Alice Jackson

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Dr. Evelyn Green, director of the University of South Alabama’s Hospitality & Tourism Workforce Innovation Alliance, is being honored by the ROI Institute for a program that provides summer jobs and work experience for Mobile youth.

The award for Most Innovative Approach to ROI will be presented at the annual Center for Talent Reporting Conference in Dallas on Feb. 20.

The pilot program for the Y.E.S. (Youth Empowered for Success) to Hospitality Workplace Readiness Training Certification was launched in May 2017 in response to the city of Mobile’s job needs for youths and the city of Gulf Shores’ need for seasonal workers. Mobile youths, ages 17-24, earned a certificate upon completion of two, half-day workplace readiness training workshops provided by South’s hospitality and tourism management faculty and staff. Then, they were transported daily from Mobile in cooperation with the Mobile County Public School System’s transportation department and the Baldwin Regional Area Transit System to work at hospitality businesses in Gulf Shores over the summer. The program grew in 2018, and it will continue this summer.

“This award is important because it recognizes how business-education partnerships, coupled with intercity partnerships, can result in positive outcomes for all stakeholders,” said Green, who is also an assistant professor of hospitality and tourism management.

The ROI Institute assists professionals in improving programs and processes using methodology developed by Dr. Jack J. Phillips and Dr. Patti P. Phillips to measure and evaluate the return on investment in non-traditional applications.

The methodology showed increased learning and application of skills by the Y.E.S. hospitality participants in the hospitality workplace, while businesses noted positive impacts in their workplaces and the cities, and positive social, economic, tourism and community impacts.

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