Engaging the Foundation Community

1
Engaging the Foundation Community
A New York City Workforce Development
Experience Building a Successful Relationship
with Local Foundations
2
Introduction

• Blake Foote
• Executive Director
• New York City
• Workforce Investment Board (WIB)

• Patricia J. Jenny
• Program Director, Community Development and the
  Environment
• New York Community Trust

3
Background New York City

• New York Citys total population is 8.2 million.
• New York Citys labor force is 3.9 million.
• 36 of New York City residents are foreign born,
  and they represent 48 of the workforce.
• New York Citys unemployment rate was 5.2 for
  Dec. 2007.
• 22 of New Yorkers live in poverty.
• The NYC Local Workforce Investment Area, the
  largest in the country, includes New York Citys
  five boroughs.
• Local WIA budget was 78M in PY2007.
• Our six Workforce1 Career Centers (One-Stops)
  have placed nearly 45,000 jobseekers since April
  2004 - placing over 17,000 in 2007.
• New York City has a vibrant community based
  organization (CBO) and training provider
  community. Seven vendors (including a community
  college) operate NYCs Workforce1 Career Centers.

4
The Benefits of Engaging Local Foundations

• WIA is not a reliable funding resource for
  innovative workforce programs, due in part to
  unexpected budget cuts and annual cycles.
• Partnership brings more public exposure to
  workforce issues.
• Foundation funds are typically more flexible,
  which allows you to pilot innovative programs
  (taking risks, being creative, and supporting
  longer-term projects).
• Foundations have a history of supporting
  workforce programming, and have a unique
  expertise and perspective about grantees.

5
The Challenges of Engaging Local Foundations

• Time intensive
• How to make the pitch Workforce development is a
  concept that competes with other social service
  priorities
• Foundations may need to learn more about
  workforce development and changing trends
• Reliant on charitable tastes of the foundation
  (e.g., may want to focus on youth or a special
  population)
• Money isnt guaranteed ongoing
• Foundations often have a different set of
  Performance Measures than WIA, so measures must
  be negotiated

6
Foundation Landscape in New York City
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NYC Workforce Development Funders Group

• The New York City Workforce Development Funders
  Group (Funders Group) is a consortium of about 25
  foundations and corporate philanthropies that was
  established in 2000. They pooled their
  philanthropic resources beginning in 2001 to
  address a range of workforce development issues.
• Developed three objectives
• Information sharing
• Collaborative grantmaking through New York City
  Workforce Development Fund
• Partnering with public sector to build a more
  effective system of employment services

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NYC Workforce Development Fund

• Collaborative fund supported by 17 of the member
  funders for specific projects housed at the New
  York Community Trust.
• June 2001 Created Youth Employment Technical
  Assistance Initiative supported by 9 foundations
  awarded 720,000 over three years to two project
  managers.
• May 2003 Created Financial Management Training
  Project awarded 1.2 million from 15 foundations
  over four years to two organizations for work
  with 22 workforce providers.
• January 2006 Funded a business plan for the
  formation of a youth workforce intermediary
  organization called JobsFirst NYC.
• February 2007 Commissioned a feasibility study
  by Seedco of new workforce development financing
  sources or partnerships at the state level.

9
Building a Partnership with the City of New York

• In 2004, the Funders Group approached NYC
  Department of Small Business Services (SBS),
  which manages the citys adult and dislocated
  workers services under the Workforce Investment
  Act, to discuss working together to strengthen
  the Citys workforce development system.
• Together SBS and the Funders Group formed the
  Workforce Innovation Fund, which is comprised of
  SBS and members of the Funders Group who have
  invested in this pooled fund.
• The WIB convened a retreat for SBS staff and
  other workforce partners to inform them of
  cutting edge workforce practices.

10
The Workforce Innovation Fund

• The first project of the Workforce Innovation
  Fund was the New York City Sectors Initiative
  (NYSCI).
• SBS Commissioner Robert Walsh had suggested
  working together to develop SBSs customized
  training initiatives by jointly investing in
  sectoral employment initiatives and
  intermediaries.
• The goal of the NYCSI is to create a new model of
  workforce development that links workforce
  development services to economic development
  strategies and investments.
• Grant making is done on a consensus basis by
  participating funders. Planning grants allowed
  intermediaries to identify employer and service
  provider partners and to understand employer
  needs before offering full demonstration grants.
• After competitive solicitation, New York City
  Sectors Initiative (NYSCI) awarded planning
  grants to three workforce partnerships in fall
  2005.

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The Workforce Innovation Fund

• Selected three sectors with job growth and
  employment opportunities for low wage
  individuals
• Health care
• Biotechnology
• Aviation
• Demonstration grants, which required 50 percent
  employer match, were used for the implementation
  of the two sector projects.
• The Workforce Innovation Fund has commitments of
  500,000 in private funds and up to 1.3 million
  in WIA funds annually for three years to support
  NYCSI.
• Private funds pay for elements of the projects
  that are not WIA eligible under customized
  training grants.
• In addition, the funding partners have contracted
  with Public/Private Ventures to conduct an
  evaluation and provide technical assistance to
  the two projects.

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Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty

• The Met Councils Medical Pathways focuses on the
  healthcare sector.
• It was funded in September 2005 with 1.55
  million over 3-years.
• The project provides innovative, customized
  training, support, and employment services to 131
  participants, who will be placed in high-demand
  target occupations
• state-certified emergency medical technician,
• state-certified paramedic,
• and radiology technician.

A Helping Hand in Technical Training NYTimes
1/20/2008
13
SUNY Downstate Medical Center

• Funded at 860,000 over 3-years.
• Goals are to increase the capacity of the
  biotechnology lab technician workshop at City
  University of New Yorks Hunter College, provide
  students with internships for work experience,
  and create a pipeline of students that links
  CUNYs two-year and four-year programs in
  biotechnology.
• Project funds support the recruitment of
  students, new curricula and internship design,
  increased capacity of an existing biotechnology
  workshop at Hunter College and the existing
  internship program, and a job placement
  component.
• The 3-year goal is to place 127 participants in
  biotechnology positions.

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Outcomes to Date

• To date, the major outcomes of the NYCSI are at
  the level of systems change and systems capacity
  rather than in individual outcomes, which will
  come out of the funded demonstration projects.
• The creation of a public-private funder
  collaborative that strategically invests in
  workforce development capacity and services in
  key sectors in New York City.
• Securing new investment funds of nearly 2
  million annually for sectoral workforce services
  and intermediary capacity building
• The formation and development of intermediary
  capacity in the health care and biotechnology
  sectors
• Providing lessons to SBS on how to shape the
  structure of customized training grants in health
  care and other industries and
• Engaging employers in financially supporting
  advancement programs for entry-level workers.

15
Leveraging Funding Training Funds Program

• SBS established the NYC Business Solutions
  Training Program to enable New York City
  businesses to address skill shortages, generate
  jobs, and help workers advance.
• The WIA Programs success helped convince the
  Mayor to allocate an additional 3.2M in City tax
  levy funds through his Center for Economic
  Opportunity initiative for FY2008.
• In early 2007, as a result of expanded funding,
  SBS added work readiness, as well as literacy,
  numeracy and English as a Second Language,
  training to the types of training eligible for
  funding.

• Stats for Program To Date
• Leveraged nearly 6.5M in employer contributions.
  
• Awarded more than 4.2 million to 42 companies.
• Trained nearly 3,000 workers.

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New York Citys Anti-Poverty Program

• Our experience collaborating with the Workforce
  Development Funders Group encouraged us to
  experiment and take risks, and helped us position
  the workforce system to capitalize on Mayor
  Bloombergs challenge to help the working poor
  population increase their earnings and move out
  of poverty.
• Mayor Bloomberg launched the Center for Economic
  Opportunity, an anti-poverty program of 35
  initiatives targeting working poor adults,
  disconnected youth, and children 5 years old or
  younger in low-income households.
• SBS will receive approximately 50 million over
  the next three years to develop, launch, and
  manage 8 initiatives to serve the working poor
  population.

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NYC Sector Focused Career Centers

• Our experience partnering with Workforce
  Development Funders Group on the NYC Sectors
  Initiative and our exposure to other national
  sector initiatives convinced us that the sector
  strategy model was an important one that we
  wanted to combine with the One-Stop model.
• Using a business-driven approach, SBS will use
  funding from the Center for Economic Opportunity
  to develop two Sector Focused Career Centers.
• Through CEO, Mayor Bloomberg will invest about
  13 million over the next 3 years to launch the
  two Centers.

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New WIF Initiatives Building Local Capacity in
Sector
At the end of 2007, the Workforce Innovation Fund
received a 450,000 grant over 3-years from the
National Fund for Workforce Solutions to support
a new endeavor.

• Goal To strengthen existing sector partnerships
  and foster new sector program leads.
• Institute in the form of two one-year intensive
  programs of workshops each year, 20 individuals
  will participate two-person teams from 10
  participating organizations.
• Specific assignments leading to development of
  new or strengthened sectoral partnerships.
• Met Council and SUNY Downstate will participate,
  as will Sector Focused Career Center directors.
• To be developed and managed by Public/Private
  Ventures and The Aspen Institute.
• Sector Strategy Public Workshop Series for
  broader audience to build interest, recruit
  Institute participants, and advocate for new
  policies.

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New WIF Initiatives Addressing Low Basic Skills

• Contextualized Workforce Services for Adults with
  Low Basic Skills is one of the main challenges
  faced by the Met Council in Health Care. They
  had difficulty was recruiting enough candidates
  who tested above the 8th grade reading and math
  levels.
• Goal Establish innovative approaches to
  integrating basic education and employment
  preparation services for customers with very low
  basic skills for whom we lack sufficient capacity
  and services within our current One-Stop System
• Target Educational Outcome Achieve increases of
  at least 4 grade levels to get customers to an
  8th grade educational level
• Program Engage customers for two years using
  occupationally contextualized curriculum and
  concurrently placing customers in survival
  jobs, providing intensive coaching, connecting
  them to work supports, and connecting them to
  career advancement opportunities

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Lessons Learned

• Use change in administration or successful
  workforce outcomes as an opportunity to engage
  foundations as partners.
• Identify potential champions in government and in
  foundation community and ask them for help.
• These partnerships support innovation, which then
  affects other programs NYCSI has served as a
  model for other sectoral and capacity-building
  strategies of SBS.
• New programs and partnerships take time and
  resources to build need to take this into
  account when planning.
• Blending public and private funds is best
  accomplished through a new and neutral entity.
• Other stakeholders (e.g., press and foundation
  boards) may need convincing that the lessons
  learned and deeper outcomes are worth the wait
  (outcomes for these partnerships are not
  immediate).
• By forming partnerships between government and
  foundations, you can create a powerful influence
  for systems change.
• Ongoing dialogue is important as opportunities
  arise and priorities shift for public and private
  partners.