Connecting Communities: The Labor Force Implications of COVID-19

Sept 23 3pm eastern | Federal Reserve System

Millions of people lost their jobs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, hitting lower-income communities and people of color particularly hard. Join Mary C. Daly, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, for a discussion on the current challenges affecting the labor force and the opportunities they present for meaningful change. Daly will be joined by Stuart Andreason, Director of the Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and their discussion will include a focus on what we can currently do to create a more inclusive economy for the future.

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Philanthropy’s Role in Fostering Grantee Resilience and Managing Secondary Trauma

Sept 24 3pm eastern | Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees

Perhaps now more than ever, nonprofit organizations working with vulnerable communities are operating under tremendous stress during a period of significant political and cultural volatility. As philanthropy underwrites the core work of these organizations, it is critical that funders understand the implications of secondary trauma on the people behind the work. Join GCIR and leaders from the field for a timely discussion as they release findings and recommendations for action from their recently-concluded national research project on secondary trauma.

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State and Local Budgets - the Next COVID-19 Battlefront

Oct 1 3pm eastern | Economic Opportunity Funders + Funders Committee for Civic Participation

Learn more about the state and local fiscal crisis, lessons learned from the Great Recession, key principles for an equitable response, and how state and local advocates are gearing up for the budget battles to come. Speakers include Caitlin Hamood, Stoneman Family Foundations (Moderator); the Honorable Julie Gonzales, Senate Finance Committee, Colorado General Assembly; Marcela Díaz, Somos Un Pueblo Unido; and Erica Williams, State Fiscal Policy, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

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Event co-sponsors include the Chesapeake Bay Funders Network, Children Youth & Family Funders Roundtable, Council of New Jersey Grantmakers, Environmental Grantmakers Association, Funders Together to End Homelessness, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, Grantmakers for Thriving Youth, Maryland Philanthropy Network, Philanthropy New York, United Philanthropy Forum, and Workforce Matters.

new information + resources

Diversifying Apprenticeship: Acknowledging Unconscious Bias to Improve Employee Access

Jobs for the Future

Promoting frontline workers to more senior positions is a great way to improve workforce diversity, but unconscious bias can prevent employees from getting the training they need to advance. Some companies are beginning to set up apprenticeship programs that provide current employees with opportunities to develop new skills through on-the-job training and classroom instruction under the guidance of experienced mentors.

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Skills for an Inclusive Economic Recovery

National Skills Coalition

In this new “call to action,” NSC offers a vision for the role that skills policy can play in an inclusive recovery, including strategies for addressing the disproportionate impact of the economic crisis on workers of color, immigrants, and workers with a high school diploma or less; the essential role of small businesses that hire locally; and the moral and economic imperative to dismantle the structural racism within workforce education and training systems.

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The labor market doesn’t have a ‘skills gap’—it has an opportunity gap

Brookings

In this new piece from Annelies Goger and Luther Jackson of Brookings, the authors argue that instead of focusing on the skills gap, it’s time to focus on closing the opportunity gap—not only for the benefit of individuals who have been shut out of the labor market, but for society as a whole. Cultivating and investing in diverse talent can unleash regional innovation, economic growth, and community well-being.

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in the news

Immigrants to U.S. Help Create More Jobs, Not Take Them, Study Finds

Newsweek | Chantal Da Silva | Sept 8, 2020

Immigration and Entrepreneurship in the United States, a new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), found that immigrants tend to play "relatively large roles as employers, rather than employees, compared to U.S.-born individuals." Looking at the rate of entrepreneurship within the 2005 to 2010 period, researchers found that that 0.83 percent of immigrants in the workforce started a firm over that period, compared with 0.46 percent of native-born workers.

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announcements

The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program is seeking feedback on their Job Quality Tools Library, which was created to provide actionable tools – including checklists, instructions, and guidelines – to help leaders adopt practices to strengthen job quality in their own organizations, in the businesses they work with, and across labor markets. To share your feedback and ideas, please complete their brief survey no later than Friday, October 2nd.