Need Help Achieving Equity in Workforce Development? You May Not Need to Look Outside your Community.

While many workforce and economic development practitioners recognize the value of a diverse workforce, they often face challenges in successfully designing and executing equitable strategies to accomplish this goal. To address these challenges, organizations can partner with community-based organizations (CBOs) that deeply understand the needs of workers that may be underrepresented in a given industry. This article discusses actionable strategies for increasing community inclusion and leadership in workforce development to achieve equitable program outcomes for jobseekers and training participants. Through authentic collaboration with CBOs, practitioners can improve talent development and catalyze broader regional economic development that is good for business, community members, and the economy.?

Background: What’s the Problem??

In recent years, there has been a growing body of research and embrace of the idea that a diverse workforce is good for business, good for communities, and good for the economy. This understanding has led many companies, public agencies, and nonprofits to focus their efforts on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), with a primary objective of this focus being to recruit, develop, and retain diverse talent. But even with strong commitment from leadership in championing DEI efforts, organizations often face challenges in successfully executing such a strategy.??

Leaders who struggle to recruit diverse talent into jobs and training programs may blame a pipeline problem, citing a lack of qualified or interested candidates from groups underrepresented in their industry. And yet, there is persistently high unemployment in certain communities and zip codes with large numbers of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous residents, indicating an appetite and need for access to quality training and job opportunities.??

The reasons for the underrepresentation of certain racial and ethnic groups in quality employment are numerous and complex – ranging from lack of awareness or understanding about available talent to deep mistrust between communities that has compounded over generations to systemic racism in our education, criminal justice, housing, economic, and workforce systems. For over forty years, national nonprofit Jobs for the Future has worked with partners across education, workforce, industry, and the public sector to address some of these complex issues related to equitable talent development. One challenge that Jobs for the Future has identified is that most training programs and recruitment strategies do not center the needs of the workers and learners most disadvantaged by our economic and workforce systems. One example of this is the practice of “creaming” in workforce programs, or favoring clients who are more likely to be placed in jobs over those who face additional barriers to employment.??

To address this challenge and prepare workers from historically underrepresented communities for high-quality careers, we need to examine and unbundle what it means to do equity-centered workforce development in a way that recognizes the importance of both traditional workforce services, like hosting a resume writing workshop, and other, less frequently funded strategies, like ensuring recruitment materials are culturally relevant and providing mental health supports. These worker-centered supports are critical to achieving equity in program outcomes and can be strengthened by including community groups as partners in workforce development strategies. This article provides workforce and economic development practitioners with a set of actionable strategies for increasing community inclusion and leadership in the design, decision-making, and implementation of workforce development efforts in order to increase equity in program outcomes.??

?

Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) in Action: Inland Empire, CA?

Inland Economic Growth & Opportunity, or IEGO, is a network of community-based organizations, businesses, institutions, and stakeholders committed to growing middle-class jobs and pursuing inclusive economic development to improve the quality of life for all Riverside and San Bernardino County, CA, residents. This two-county region, known as the Inland Empire, has experienced sustained economic growth over the last decade, but this growth has been concentrated in sectors producing low quality jobs, resulting in a growing population of residents that can’t make ends meet, especially Black and Latinx workers, and women.??

To address this inequitable access to quality jobs, IEGO leaders, supported by Jobs for the Future, turned to the expertise of some of the community-based organizations that are the closest to the communities facing barriers to economic advancement.? These groups perform many essential functions of workforce development, like mentorship, job training, and connecting jobseekers to wraparound supports like childcare and transportation, but unlike workforce boards and community colleges, these less-traditional actors often get under acknowledged and under resourced for their valuable contributions to the talent development ecosystem.?

Instead of waiting for large institutions to approach them for help, a group of eight Inland Empire CBOs decided to flip the script and embark on a learning journey to identify, elevate, connect, and resource the critical role that CBOs play in workforce development. They uncovered some of their collective strengths or “superpowers” as community-centered actors, investigated what it really means to engage in workforce activities, and identified the conditions and investments needed for them to do their best work and truly realize their potential in closing racial and gender economic equity gaps in their communities.?

For a full description of the outputs of this journey, please see the report entitled, What Can CBOs Teach Us About Achieving Equity in Workforce Development??

??

Workforce Development, Unbundled?

To understand how CBOs can add value to a talent development strategy, we need to get more specific about what workforce development really means and the functions involved. The CBO group determined that the traditional workforce activities you might think of – job training, career counseling, internships, and apprenticeships – represent just one of seven components. To ensure workforce strategies fully incorporate the needs of individuals underrepresented in quality jobs and training, CBOs can and should be engaged as partners in all of the following activities:???

• Planning & Governance: Participating in the planning, leadership, or oversight of local, regional, or statewide workforce initiatives (e.g., sitting on a local workforce development board).?
• Data Collection & Research: Collecting, analyzing, and presenting data about industry demand, learner and worker needs, and overall labor market trends to inform program design and delivery. This can also include community surveys or listening sessions.?
• Community Awareness, Recruitment, & Placement: Understanding the values, conditions, culture, and existing power dynamics of communities to design and facilitate training programs and deliver support services that reflect community needs. This understanding will lead to more inclusive practices, including the recruitment and placement of community members into training programs and jobs.?

• Community Activation & Leadership: Including community voice and leadership in the design and implementation of solutions.?
• Workforce Service Delivery: Delivering training programs and services that are directly connected to workforce development (e.g., job training, pre-apprenticeship, career counseling, etc.).?
• Other Support Service Delivery: Providing or connecting to direct or indirect services (e.g., food assistance, childcare, transportation assistance) that provide additional support for success and can further enable an individual’s workforce journey.?
• Advocacy: Working to secure or influence funding, policies, or programs with a workforce focus.?

Real Life Example: Uplift San Bernardino at the Making Hope Happen Foundation Provides Community Awareness, Recruitment, and Placement for Job Training and Employment Opportunities?

Uplift San Bernardino and its network of partners host community events including career fairs to connect students and families in the city of San Bernardino with local education, training, and employment opportunities. The organization’s strong community connections and historical neighborhood-specific knowledge make them a trusted resource for youth and families who seek training and career support.??

For example, Uplift SB recently hosted a career awareness workshop for high school juniors and seniors interested in Electric Vehicle (EV) careers. These predominately Latinx young people were able to engage with professionals in the EV industry, a few of whom were born in San Bernardino and have a shared understanding of their life experiences. When professionals share experiences and identities with the populations seeking training and employment, they can better communicate career opportunities in a way that is culturally relevant, making the jobs seem attainable, exciting, and worth pursuing.?

Funding the Full Suite of Workforce Activities?

Large tranches of state and federal public dollars flow to institutional actors like community colleges and workforce boards each year through sources such as the Workforce Investment Opportunities Act and state higher education budget appropriations. These funds often support activities in the “Workforce Service Delivery” category, covering the cost of training facilities, instructors, and equipment. While those training costs are critically important to a robust talent development system, fewer dollars are available to support the other functions that directly increase access to training and jobs for underrepresented jobseekers, such as community awareness, recruitment, and placement.??

Fortunately, in recent years there has been a growing movement towards recognizing these other functions, specifically wraparound supports like childcare, transportation, and housing, as critical workforce enablers for individuals to access and succeed in quality training. There is an opportunity to think creatively about how these services can be administered.??

Rather than duplicating efforts, funds should be directed to organizations that have built trust with target communities, and already provide critical community services in a culturally relevant way. Many CBOs are led and staffed by proximate leaders, defined as leaders who share lived experiences with groups “whose identity, experience, or community are systemically stereotyped, feared, dismissed, or marginalized.” Providing resources to organizations with proximate leaders can increase the effectiveness of equity-focused workforce investments by ensuring that solutions are co-designed with, rather than designed for, specific communities.?

?

Takeaways for Practitioners?

You may be thinking...I would love to incorporate more community leadership into the talent development strategies of my company, city, or region. But where can I start??

Step 1: Do a Self-Assessment.??

Identify your core competencies when it comes to workforce service provision. Are you strongest in advocacy, data collection, or workforce service delivery? Then, identify your gaps. For example, a public workforce preparation program in Stanislaus County, CA recently noticed a decrease in utilization of their training services—even after 2.5 years of the pandemic, there seemed to be a drop in the number of individuals wanting to return to work. Theories include a lack of childcare, or proliferation of individuals taking on gig work as remote work policies and health concerns have contributed to an increased use of food delivery services.??

To solve this recruitment challenge, this public agency needs to understand the unique needs of its local jobseekers. Rather than relying on theories or conducting its own research, the agency could partner with an organization that maintains deep connections to specific communities to identify the reasons why training utilization has decreased and understand what supports may be needed for residents to access services.??

Step 2: Find the Right Community Partner.?

Not all partners are created equal. A large nonprofit with expertise in developing community college curricula has a very different value proposition than a small grass-roots organization that provides youth mentorship programs. Once you have identified the function you need support with, the next step is to find a partner who is deeply embedded (i.e., well-connected, trusted, and knowledgeable) in the community(ies) you are looking to serve or recruit.??

Partnership is not just about checking a box on a grant application or putting a logo on your website. CBOs have many strengths or “superpowers” as community-centered actors, and the most strategic type of partnership will leverage these strengths to achieve shared goals. The following are CBO superpowers, as articulated by the Inland Empire CBO partners, that can complement the strengths of other workforce and economic development actors:?

• CBOs are agile and innovative. They go above and beyond to meet community needs, regardless of what it takes.??

• CBOs live and die by their partnerships. Their strong, trust-based relationships with partner organizations reduce duplication of services and deepen their impact.??
• CBOs are community translators. They can communicate relevant information about jobs, training, technology, and support services in culturally competent ways that cater to individuals from diverse backgrounds to ensure community understanding and engagement.??
• CBOs are the bridge between sectors like housing, transportation, education, workforce, and health. They have a comprehensive view and understanding of the issues that affect an individual’s well-being.??
• CBOs de-risk public and private investments. For instance, when a company invests in a new training program, CBOs provide complementary supportive services like mentorship or counseling that help trainees persist and reduce turnover.??
• CBOs are employers and economic engines of the community. They employ people from the community with local knowledge and deep social networks.?

Real Life Example: Inclusion of Farmworker Voice in Regional Training Efforts?

The Fresno-Merced F3 Innovate Initiative is a regional inclusive economic development effort in California’s Central Valley focused on developing a world class “Climate-Smart Agrifood Technology and Engineering Cluster,” driving economic growth and equity in one of the nation’s top food producing regions. One major component is the development of a skilled, next-generation workforce by investing in industry-aligned, interdisciplinary workforce training and pathways.??

To ensure this effort provides access to quality jobs and upskilling for Central Valley residents, the F3 coalition identified the need to include farmworker voice and leadership in the design, decision-making, and implementation of the training component. Rather than asking community college partners to develop these worker-serving functions in-house, F3 partnered with the California Farmworker Foundation (CFF) and Binational of Central CA (BOCC), two community-based organizations with deep connections to predominantly immigrant farmworker communities. CFF and BOCC are helping the community colleges to identify the instructional methods, support services, and recruitment strategies that will best facilitate farmworker participation in these new training programs.?

Step 3: Develop Authentic Collaboration.??

Once you have identified the ideal partner(s) for your effort, there are several actions you can take to ensure the partnership is built to last, and not transactional. A long-term relationship based on trust and commitment to shared goals will be more fruitful than one that is based solely on the exchange of money or services. Alongside partners across the United States representing education, workforce, industry, public sector, and community-based organizations, Jobs for the Future has been learning what is needed to sustain effective collaboration with community leaders. Some strategies include:?

• Bring community leaders into program design and decision making. Think about the various roles that CBO partners can play in your program or initiative. They could be subcontracted to provide workforce services such as mentorship, job training, or recruitment. But they could also be engaged in governance structures, which allows community voice to be incorporated into planning and decision making. Appointing CBO leaders to formal positions on a board or leadership group can help foster long-term relationships and ensure attention to community-driven solutions beyond a single project or initiative.??
• Compensate CBO leaders for their time and expertise. Community leaders bring vast amounts of historical knowledge, lived experience, and strategic thinking to the tables and spaces in which they engage. Providing funding in the form of stipends or organizational capacity building dollars for participation on a board, planning effort, or other engagement can build trust and allow for deeper participation, especially for organizations with small budgets.?

Real Life Example: Engaging CBOs as Co-Designers and Thought Partners?

When the IEGO coalition decided to pursue a federal funding opportunity, the partners approached San Bernardino-based organization Youth Action Project (YAP) to co-design the proposal, asking for specific help on strategies to increase equitable access to training for the region’s Black and Latinx communities, and allocating significant funding in the proposal for these activities. YAP leadership was pleasantly surprised by this request to engage in early proposal ideation, noting that typically CBOs are asked to engage at the end of the process with a request for a letter of support, often without the possibility of funding.??

Engaging YAP early in the planning process, rather than asking them to participate when the concept was already fully developed, improved the quality of the application, built trust, and laid the groundwork for a long-term partnership. YAP is now one of the biggest champions of the IEGO coalition.?

The Spectrum of Public Participation (see below) is a useful assessment tool to reflect on and expand the level of community engagement present in a program, project, or initiative. Developed by the International Association for Public Participation, this spectrum can facilitate a conversation about what meaningful inclusion could look like, and what benefits could be realized when moving from an “inform” or “consult” approach to community participation to a “collaborate” or “empower” approach.?

Thinking Beyond Workforce – inclusion in the process as a critical component of a broader inclusive economic development strategy?

At Jobs for the Future, we are working with partners across the nation to catalyze inclusive regional economic development, or the creation of equitable, resilient economies that everyone can contribute to and benefit from regardless of who they are or where they live.??

Any talent development strategy, if it hopes to successfully reach communities furthest away from economic opportunity, must also consider the place-based conditions that affect an individual’s ability to find and be successful in a job—factors such as social networks, reliable transportation, and affordable housing. And connecting these talent strategies to broader regional economic development efforts can ensure that individuals are preparing for jobs with a positive career trajectory and upward mobility.??

Community-based organizations, with their deep community connections, cultural competence, population-specific approaches, and historical neighborhood-specific knowledge, are invaluable assets in any collaborative effort with shared prosperity as the north star. Now is the time for practitioners to invest the time and resources into establishing authentic community partnerships. We really can’t afford not to.?

This article was published in the Summer 2023 edition of the Economic Development Journal, a publication available to members of the International Economic Development Council, and is?being republished with its permission. To have access to IEDC's Journal articles and its many services, you can become a member by visiting https://www.iedconline.org.