National Service & Volunteer Accelerator

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Problem

High youth unemployment rates signify the risk that a great majority of our young students are not prepared to contribute to the economy. Meanwhile, national and community service programs offer great opportunities to address pressing social issues while giving young adults experience that can help them learn how to participate.

Solution

Mayor Walling has created a new position of Chief Service Officer in his office to direct national service AmeriCorps, VISTA and community volunteers towards City priorities including safety, blight and education. The Flint National Service Accelerator is a multi-sector partnership that leverages Federal, State and local funds to provide more money for nonprofits to host service positions. The goal is to scale up service in Flint to create opportunities for youth and students that will give them a pathway to employment and higher education while at the same time bettering the community.”

Workforce Innovation Training Grant

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Problem

In order to attract new jobs in the changing economy, workers need to have skills that match what businesses are looking for.

Solution

Franklin County’s WIT-G program incentivizes businesses to train additional new employees, allowing them to invest elsewhere while providing workers with quality jobs and the skills they need to work in expanding and evolving industries. Rather than training workers in general skills, the program works directly with companies to teach skills that are tailored to currently available jobs and carefully coordinates with city and state levels of government to avoid duplication with other initiatives”

Investing for Re-entry Not Recidivism

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Problem

The growing rise of recidivism poses a threat to our society’s ability to prepare individuals to become contributing adults. Among the leading cause of recidivism is the lack of employment opportunities and limited educational opportunities for ex-offenders.

Solution

In order to reduce recidivism and improve ex-offender reintegration, prison systems should partner with private industry to develop Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs for prisoners. By placing a greater emphasis on providing marketable skills we improve the odds that they will successfully reintegrate in society.”

Denver Peak Performance

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Problem

Government often relies on outside experts and hiring consultants to improve city systems and advise city employees on how to do their jobs better. By focusing only on this outsider, top-down approach, government is spending more money on solving its problems and not inspiring a culture of innovation and trust in government amongst city employees.

Solution

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock launched Peak Performance to invest in Denver’s employees by giving them the tools to solve city problems. Peak offers classes to city employees to help them identify areas for improvement and embrace a new culture of innovation to provide the best service possible. By empowering city employees to find their own straightforward reforms, Mayor Hancock has restored public trust in government, while making city projects run more efficiently and save money.

Skills That Matter

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Problem

With rising tuition costs and high levels of unemployment amongst graduates, college is no longer a guaranteed pathway for everyone to secure a job. Technological advancements and the overwhelming number of unfilled high-skill jobs calls for a revision in how we train future employees to meet the needs of the the 21st century workforce. 

Solution

County Commissioner Bridget Gainer has proposed innovative ways to encourage the development of apprenticeship programs that more accurately meet the needs of the 21st century workforce. In Cook County, she has created the first earned credit for employers who create and run a Department of Labor registered apprenticeship program. Having local government collaborate with business leaders, Commissioner Gainer also hopes to help create a pathway for employers to build apprenticeships in non-traditional areas (services and tech industries) where there is projected growth over the next 50 years.

Made in San Jose

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Problem

Manufacturers consistently report a shortage of skilled workers as a key challenge to their operations in the U.S. As manufacturing today involves complex tools requiring technologically skilled operators, managers, and technicians, there is a strong need for increased access to the training and skills needed to fill these jobs and boost local economic activity. 

Solution

Mayor Sam Liccardo launched an initiative this summer to preserve and strengthen manufacturing activity in San Jose. By leveraging partnerships with industry leaders, energy providers, and educational institutions, he hopes to help San Jose boost its manufacturing base and provide a pathway to the middle class for residents in the wave of next-shoring taking place. These kinds of partnerships can provide students with a clear path to employment, and help boost flagging public college budgets. By focusing upon sites, space, and skills, this initiative will help revive dozens of underutilized warehouses and industrial sites and restore the wages and dignity of thousands of our unemployed neighbors. 

Summer Jobs 253

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Problem

In Tacoma, there are few options to help address the challenges of high youth unemployment, low on-time graduation rates, and poor financial literacy skills among students ages 14-18. With these obstacles, students do not have adequate access to the skills and experiences they need to graduate on time and succeed in the 21st century workforce. 

Solution

Marilyn Strickland has helped lead the development of Summer Jobs 253 (SJ253), a program that allows incoming high school juniors and seniors the opportunity to earn credit toward graduation while working as an intern for a local business. Students in the program work up to 96 hours for an employer as well as attending an additional 24 hours of classroom time to learn resume writing, interviewing, and financial literacy skills. The City coordinates the robust partnerships that make the program work because of growing support in the business community and amongst private and corporate donors. The Summer Jobs 253 program has helped connect high-risk students to the skills they need to graduate on time, enter the workforce prepared, and establish bank accounts to help save for their future.

SJ Youth Works

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Problem

Youth unemployment remains as high as 20% in some San Jose neighborhoods while a troublesome trend shows an increase in the number of younger youth (14 – 16 year old’s) committing burglaries and other crimes. The City’s gang- and crime-impacted neighborhoods fall short in opportunities for youth to be safe, engaged and productive over the summer months and gainful employment is a seemingly unreachable concept. A program that has long-targeted at-risk youth in these neighborhoods—The Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force—has long addressed the social, health and safety aspects confronted by at-risk youth and traditional youth employment programs have focused on the 18 and older group. An age-appropriate youth employment program for younger youth had not been attempted. 

Solution

This summer, Mayor Liccardo helped launch SJ Youth Works, a five-week summer youth employment program for younger, at-risk youth recruited through the public and nonprofit agencies already supporting them. SJ Youth Works improves on an already-existing youth employment program with the priority of addressing the reality faced by, and the needs of younger, at-risk youth. The methodology is one that coordinates with the support services already available through public and private continuum-of-care agencies like the County government’s social services programs and probation department or non-profits like TeenForce and Unity Care. By exposing younger youth to well-supported employment experiences that are supplemented with case management, life-skills and financial literacy training, SJ Youth Works is creating pathways for these youth to envision a career while making some money. Youth employment programs, even for younger at-risk youth, have been shown to decrease the likelihood that the youth will become an offender and decrease recidivism rates for those that have. 

Careers Gateway Program

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Problem

Many low-income individuals who do not speak English as their first language face several challenges from obtaining meaningful full-time positions with stable wages in key industry sectors or to excel in their careers. 

Solution

Mayor Kim Driscoll helped create an occupational skills training program in Salem, Massachusetts aimed at low-income, unemployed or underemployed non-native English speakers that focuses first on key career skills (i.e. Microsoft Office and general computer skills) and then on specific emerging industry sectors. The City partnered with the regional Workforce Investment Board and Career Center, the community college system, local major healthcare employers (two major hospitals), and other community level stakeholders to help make this program a success . The program has already successfully matched many of these individuals to full-time employment in its first year and Mayor Driscoll is hopeful for expanding the program to reach more participants. 

Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Program

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Problem

Over the next 10 years, more than 44,000 jobs in the precision manufacturing sector will go unfilled in Massachusetts, due to a lack of qualified workers, despite the fact that the average salary in this industry can approach $75,000. Historically, Western Massachusetts has been left out of the red-hot economy in the eastern part of the state. Part of that problem is a gap between the number of well-paying, stable manufacturing jobs and the number of local residents who can fill them. 

Solution

Senator Eric Lesser has proposed an idea to provide advanced manufacturing training to unemployed and underemployed individuals, including veterans, to build a locally based, highly qualified manufacturing workforce across Massachusetts, particularly in the western Massachusetts where manufacturing was the key employer for 10 generations. The precision manufacturing pilot program is already operating in Western Massachusetts and has resulted in an exciting partnership between the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County, Inc. and the Western Massachusetts Chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association. Together these organizations are working with local community colleges, vocational schools and advanced manufacturing companies to train unemployed and underemployed individuals, career changers and youth across the region.

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