In a story published by XPRIZE, a global leader in designing and implementing innovative public competitions, JFFLabs Director Josh Copus explained how JFF will be working with select workforce boards in six states to pilot winning solutions from the Future of Work Grand Challenge. Arguing that change won’t happen from the top down, he said the Grand Challenge takes the right approach to transforming the country’s workforce system because it seeks to drive change from the ground up.

Copus explained that, as a partner in the Future of Work Grand Challenge, JFF will be leading engagement with the American workforce system by focusing on creating pilots of winning solutions with workers, evaluating them for effectiveness, and scaling them through partnerships with future-focused workforce boards.

These workforce boards have been “active participants—aggravated allies even—working in their hometowns to help their communities chart their own futures,” he said. “Our goal is to equip the U.S. workforce system with tech-driven solutions sourced through the Grand Challenge and thereby increase the access that out-of-work Americans have to the support and resources they need as they manage unemployment benefits, enroll in training, and explore new career opportunities.”