what we're up to
Insights from Our Members
In our newest guest post, Rob Hope and Kayla Tolentino of ReWork the Bay at the San Francisco Foundation weigh in on why the rules of the game matter, not just how you play it:
"Our main goal as a collective is to look deeper for structural and systemic reasons why economic mobility isn’t getting better in our region in spite of investments. In other words, yes, let’s equip workforce development with the resources to play the game well, and let’s also do our part to fix the rules of the game."
In another recent post, Workforce Matters sat down with Tameshia Bridges Mansfield, a Program Officer on the Family Economic Security team at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, as follow-up to our recent screening of The Road Up to further discuss opportunities to connect justice-impacted individuals to employment:
"One in three people in this country have a criminal record and roughly 50% of children have a parent with a record – and that data translates to people who are accessing workforce development services as well. It is not enough to simply think that providing someone with skills training, a resume writing workshop, and a new suit is all that is needed to help them land a job."
Funder-to-Funder Email List Replaces Mobilize.io
Workforce Matters will be retiring our Mobilize.io social networking platform in December 2020 and replacing it with a traditional email discussion list managed by groups.io. The new list is open to all qualified Workforce Development grantmakers and provides a convenient platform for sharing announcements, exchanging information about new publications and research, and soliciting feedback or ideas from peers. Daily summary and digest options are available to help keep the volume of messages manageable.
Sign Me Up!
Last call for nominations! Steering Committee Nominations Due Friday, November 20th
Workforce Matters is currently accepting nominations for our 2021-2022 Steering Committee. The Steering Committee provides oversight for our network and helps to establish the strategic direction of our work. All qualified grantmakers are invited to apply, but we are particularly interested in hearing from funders who identify as male, Latinx, American Indian, and/or represent philanthropies based in the Mountain/Southwest region in order to further grow the diversity of our leadership body.
Submit a Nomination
on our calendars
“A Single Mom’s Story” Watch Party and Q&A
Nov 20 2:00 pm ET | Roadtrip Nation / ECMC Foundation
Post-Election Analysis for Philanthropy
Economic Opportunity Funders
Part 1:
A Conversation with Public Opinion and Political Strategists
Dec 2 | 2:00 pm ET | Learn More and Register
Part 2:
A Conversation with National and State Organizers
Dec 3 | 3:00 pm ET | Learn More and Register
A National Reckoning on Race
Dec 17 | 2:00 pm ET | Economic Opportunity Funders
new information + resources
2021 Federal Workforce Policy Preview
Curious about how emerging federal policy proposals and budget priorities might shape the context for your work in 2021 and beyond? With a new Congress and presidential term beginning in January 2021, many research, analysis, and advocacy organizations are beginning to roll out their 2021 recommendations. For your quick reference and comparison, we’re compiling them on our website as new publications come across our desks.
Check Out Our Federal Workforce Policy Preview
A New Contract with the Middle Class
Nov 2020 | Brookings Institution
In this new report, Richard V. Reeves and Isabel V. Sawhill use data and stories from Americans around the country to assess the current well-being of the middle class and to offer policy solutions that look towards the future. Read More
Race and the Work of the Future: Advancing Workforce Equity in the United States
Nov 2020 | National Fund for Workforce Solutions
In this new report, the National Fund calls on policymakers, business leaders, philanthropy, and community organizations to come together to dismantle systemic barriers to opportunity for people of color, scale innovative training and credentialing models, invest in automation resilience strategies to ensure that working people can be uplifted rather than dislocated by technological advancements, and insist on high standards of job quality for all workers. Read More
Improving Youth Apprenticeship Data Quality: Challenges and Opportunities
Nov 2020 | Advance CTE
This report summarizes the discussions of the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship's (PAYA) Data Quality Workgroup, highlighting the most urgent youth apprenticeship data quality challenges and the roles that state leaders, local intermediaries, and education and employer partners can play in improving the quality and use of data. It also identifies high-impact strategies for using youth apprenticeship data to advance quality and equity and provides next steps for the field. Read More
announcements
Opportunity Challenge Applicant Profiles Now Available
The WES Mariam Assefa Fund and the Tarsadia Foundation recently announced the awardees of their Opportunity Challenge, a new grantmaking initiative to support the success of immigrants and refugees and the community-led organizations that serve them. Applicants hailed from over 200 communities in 42 states. To raise the profile of these applicants and help them find new partners and resources, they have compiled two resources for funders interested in learning more about organizations working in this arena:
- Snapshot summaries of the 20 organizations selected by the Opportunity Challenge Selection Committee as semi-finalists, including descriptions of the organization, their proposed Opportunity Challenge projects, geographies and populations served, and key insights from our reviewers.
- Application data for 450 eligible organizations that applied to the Opportunity Challenge, including organization name, location total budget, a brief project description, and high-level tagging to identify key populations, solutions types, and themes.
Contact Monica Munn at WES Mariam Assefa Fund for more information.
