“Across our country, there is a crisis among many families and individuals who lack the basic skills necessary to move into family-supporting employment,” says JFF President Marlene B. Seltzer. “Even those working full-time jobs too often still find themselves unable to provide for the basic needs of their families—food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and medical care.”

Advancement for Low-Wage Workers, a new series from JFF, is designed to elevate discussion of this issue critical to the nation. JFF’s Advancement publications address public policy and on-the-ground practice.

Selected titles in the Advancement Series:

• The Next Challenge: Advancing Low-Skilled, Low-Wage Workers, the series introduction, argues for placing advancement at the center of employment and training policy.
  


• Workforce Intermediaries and Their Roles in Promoting Advancement explores the core elements of workforce intermediaries, their strategies for advancing workers to family-sustaining careers, and the challenge of securing financing to sustain and expand their services.
  


• Earning While Learning: Maintaining Income While Upgrading Skills reviews what works in providing workers and job seekers with income even as they improve their ability to advance in the labor market.
  


• Career Ladders: A Guidebook for Workforce Intermediaries provides detailed information on planning, developing, operating, and expanding the role of intermediaries in advancement.

Many low-income workers fail to take advantage of such benefits as tax credits, food stamps, medical insurance, and housing subsidies, among others. One strategy for improving access to and the use of these benefits is to provide them through employers.

Private Employers and Public Benefits reports on research into the value of this strategy by the three partner organizations in WINs—Workforce Innovations Networks. Jobs for the Future, the National Association of Manufacturers’ Center for Workforce Success, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Workforce Preparation examined employers’ experiences with public benefit programs, including those aimed directly at increasing the hiring and retention of workers from low-income families.

Click here to download Private Employers and Public Benefits

Click here to download additional resources on ENGAGING EMPLOYERS IN WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

In January, the Massachusetts legislature voted to make available $6 million for a wide variety of industry, union, and community-based programs to enable state residents to learn the skills needed for better-paying jobs. The Boston Workforce Development Initiative, which played a key role in crafting the job-training language for the state’s economic stimulus bill, advocated strongly for the funding and for the successful effort to override a gubernatorial veto.

Representatives of the Boston Workforce Development Initiative termed the vote a major victory in the fight to provide good jobs for the people of Massachusetts and to create the workforce that businesses need to compete in a global economy. The initiative is a five-year public/private partnership to address the gap between the needs of employers for more skilled workers and of workers for jobs that pay a family-supporting wage. One component is an extraordinary level of cooperation among various funders and partners to craft and advocate for policy solutions that support the initiative’s on-the-ground efforts. As a consultant to the initiative, JFF guides its design, coordinates the operations of its various components, facilitates planning and oversight for the funders, and leads the policy advocacy effort.

Click here to read about the BOSTON WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE and the new legislation 

Seven institutions are finalists for the 2004 Metlife Foundation Community College Excellence Award, administered by JFF. Each finalist combines determined leadership, innovative programming, and attention to outcomes throughout the college, leading to demonstrable improvements in meeting the varied learning needs of low-income, first-generation, immigrant, and working students.

The finalists for the prestigious award are Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute (Albuquerque, New Mexico), Bunker Hill Community College (Boston, Massachusetts), City College of San Francisco (San Francisco, California), Community College of Denver (Denver, Colorado), San Jacinto College North (Houston, Texas), San Juan College (Farmington, New Mexico), and Tallahassee Community College (Tallahassee, Florida).

Two winners of the 2004 Metlife Foundation Community College Excellence Award will be announced on April 26 at the annual convention of the American Association of Community Colleges. Each winning institution will receive $30,000.

Click here for more information on METLIFE FOUNDATION COMMUNITY COLLEGE EXCELLENCE AWARD 

Year Up graduated its third class on January 21. The program’s impact will be felt for years to come in students’ lives and in the community, as the data on the first two graduating classes suggests. The one-year, intensive training program provides urban young adults, ages 18-24, with a unique combination of technical and professional skills, college credits, and a paid corporate internship.

Among the outcomes: Year Up students now earn up to 21 college credits—nearly one-fifth of a B.A. degree—through an innovative partnership with Cambridge College.

Other program results include:

The Summer Fellowship Program in South Africa, a month-long opportunity for American students between the ages of 14-19, combines travel, cross-cultural experiences, language and field study, and networking with professionals. The Summer Fellowship Program is sponsored by the International Youth Leadership Institute, a national, not-for-profit organization committed to preparing African American and Latino students to become future leaders.

The program provides a dynamic and enriching opportunity for students and helps prepare them to become leaders in our increasingly global society. It also offers a unique opportunity to explore the special relationship that today’s cultures of North and South America and the Caribbean share with Africa, past and present.

Jobs for the Future is pleased to offer a scholarship, valued at $3,500, for a Massachusetts-based African-American or Latino high school student to take part in the program. Michael Webb, now program director at JFF for the Early College High School Initiative, founded IYLI in 1989 and continues to be involved as a member of its board of directors.

For more information and to apply for the program, contact iyli_2000@yahoo.com. Applications are due February 28.

If you wish to apply for the JFF fellowship and the program, E-mail the completed application to iyli@jff.org or fax it to Rubin Williams, 617.728.4857. 

Twenty years ago, JFF was founded to address an emerging challenge: the skills of many young people and working adults did not meet the demands of the economy. To serve job seekers while providing the foundation for economic growth, JFF uses research, analysis, technical assistance, and public mobilization to advance policies and practices that expand opportunities for skill development and career advancement.

As we begin a year-long celebration of our 20th anniversary year, our constant goal is to change the lives of real people, inspired by the vision of a United States that promises opportunity to all. What it takes to get ahead may have changed dramatically over two decades; our mission has not.

Future issues of Newswire will bring information about publications, projects, and events celebrating the past and looking to the future with comprehensive strategies that help catalyze the creation and dissemination of systemic solutions to the income, education, and skills gaps for our nation’s youth and adults.

• Telling the Whole Truth (Or Not) About Highly Qualified Teachers reveals that some states have made good faith efforts to report honest data, but others fell far short.
• Telling the Whole Truth (Or Not) About High School Graduation Rates highlights the need for states to better report high school graduation data.
• In Don’t Turn Back the Clock, over 100 African-American and Latino school superintendents voice their support for the accountability provisions in Title I, No Child Left Behind.
• Ed Trust director Kati Haycock comments on the 2nd Anniversary of on the 2nd Anniversary of NCLB. http://www2.edtrust.org/edtrust/press+room