Learnings from Further Together: Examining the Progress of the Federal Infrastructure Investments 

From left to right: Jen Horton (Jobs for the Future), Melissa Johnson (National Skills Coalition), Rachel Korberg (Families and Workers Fund), Paige Shevlin (U.S. Department of Transportation), Crystal Bridgeman (Siemens Foundation). 

In this week’s post from Further Together, and on the heels of another Good Jobs Challenge funding announcement from the U.S. Department of Commerce, we’re sharing key takeaways from our panel on Federal Infrastructure Investments: Progress, Challenges and Lessons Learned which featured Rachel Korberg of the The Families and Workers Fund (FWF), Jen Horton of Jobs for the Future (JFF), Paige Shevlin of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Melissa Johnson of National Skills Coalition (NSC) and was moderated by Crystal Bridgeman of the Siemens Foundation. 

Since 2021, Congress and President Biden, have made a number of historic, once-in-a-generation investments in the economy and the nation’s infrastructure via the American Rescue Plan Act, the BiPartisan Infrastructure Law (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, IIJA), CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), totalling billions of dollars for “recovery funding”, workforce development, domestic manufacturing, clean energy and just transitions. Our panelists joined us to share the progress they’ve seen through their respective areas of work, along with the opportunities that still exist and the challenges that many stakeholders are navigating in accessing and leveraging funding. 

Melissa Johnson, Managing Director of State Strategies, previewed the work that NSC is doing focused on eleven  states by supporting  coalitions in advocating for state policies that will fully leverage clean energy and infrastructure investments. Through her comments, Melissa underscored the importance of continuing to educate policymakers on the value of leveraging these federal investments, reminding audience members that “it’s not too late”. 

Jen Horton, Senior Director in Workforce & Regional Economies, spoke about the importance of cross collaboration among federal agencies and philanthropy.  In her role as a federal partner for implementation, learning communities and technical assistance for EDA’sGood Jobs Challenge and DOL’s Building Pathways to Infrastructure Jobs grant program, Jen is uniquely positioned to lead teams that assess grantee challenges and assist them in building collaborative public-private partnerships to prepare job seekers for a variety of industries including manufacturing and renewable energy transportation. Jen reinforced the value and importance of peer learning, noting that the ability to bring together grantees across federal agencies to share examples and best practices has proved beneficial to their work. 

Rachel Korberg, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Families and Worker Fund, spoke about the need for philanthropy to use a different set of muscles and a different degree of coordination in order to maximize the benefits of these federal investments. With this in mind, the powering climate and infrastructure initiative was born. This pooled fund seeks to ensure that there are good upwardly mobile jobs in key and demand jobs within the climate and infrastructure sectors. Rachel challenged the grantmakers in the audience to think critically about how their investments can ensure that federal funding goes to the best and highest use. 

Paige Shevlin, Workforce Advisor in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Transportation, provided a brief overview of the recommendations that the Department released in their report “Investing in America: Best Practices to Expand Access to Jobs and Economic Opportunity through Transportation Infrastructure Investments”, highlighting the role and power of procurement practices in advancing and expanding access to jobs and economic opportunity.   The report also provides recommendations to workforce training providers on how to support individuals to access jobs in the construction industry.  Paige reinforced the need for deep and specific technical assistance for state and local governments, stating the value of connecting communities with other communities who are doing similar work. 

Each panelist shared insights from their real-world experiences and years of experience in workforce development, philanthropy and federal government. Most notably, this panel collectively encouraged audience members to stay the course and continue doing the work in their respective communities.  

As a network of workforce grantmakers, Workforce Matters is keenly interested in understanding and highlighting the role that philanthropy can play in leveraging these federal investments to strengthen our workforce ecosystem. We encourage you to think about the ways that you can support, advocate for or invest in initiatives that seek to advance the equitable outcomes through these federal investments. 

If you are interested in learning more about the work of our panelists, peruse the resources below:

1. U.S. Department of Transportation – Investing in America report 
2. National Skills Coalition – Building the Future Workforce report 
3. Jobs for the Future – Good Jobs Challenge Community of Practice 
4. The Siemens Foundation – EVeryone Charging Foward^TM initiative 
5. The Families and Workers Fund – Powering Climate and Infrastructure Careers