More than 8,000 job placements since Plan began
The Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) hosted its 9th
“Building Successful Mixed-Income Communities” forum on December 12, 2006,
co-sponsored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and in
coordination with the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA). Attracting over 100
people and featuring a national expert and several local policymakers and
practitioners, the forum re-examined the issue of jobs, training and workforce
development for CHA residents that was first featured in the July 2005 forum. MPC also released the executive summary of
its December 2006 Update on the CHA Plan for Transformation , which outlines the new Workforce Development Initiative
launched by CHA, the Partnership for New Communities (PNC), Chicago Dept. of
Human Services (CDHS), and Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development (MOWD).
Julia Stasch, vice president of the
MacArthur Foundation’s program on human and community development, welcomed
attendees, and Commissioner David Hanson of the Mayor’s Office
of Workforce Development, and Meghan Harte, CHA managing
director of resident services, made opening remarks. Maria
Hibbs , executive director of the Partnership
for New Communities and MPC Housing Committee member, moderated the panel
of:
- Bob Giloth, Director, Family Economic Success, Annie E. Casey Foundation
- Evelyn Diaz, Associate Director, Chicago Jobs Council
- Angela Starks, Associate Vice Chancellor, City Colleges of Chicago
- Mary Howard, Senior Director, Supportive Housing, Case
Management, Employment & Prevention, Heartland Human Care
Services, Inc.
Julia Stasch, MacArthur Foundation
Stasch reiterated the progress of CHA’s Plan for Transformation thus far and
the role of the “Building Successful Mixed-Income Communities” forums in helping
city providers work together for community revitalization. She stressed the
importance of workforce development for the success of the Plan and stated the
MacArthur Foundation has contributed more than $50 million to the effort.
Hibbs emphasized that improving the economic success of
CHA residents is important for the sustainability of the new mixed-income
communities. Employment is the threshold condition that residents must meet to
live in these communities, which in turn affects their occupancy levels and
stability. The challenge is assisting residents with multiple employment
barriers meet that threshold and experience the benefits of having a job.
Maria Hibbs, Parntership for New Communities
In her opening remarks, Harte briefly outlined the evolution of CHA’s
workforce development efforts, which began at the beginning of the Plan in 1999,
when there was little data available on the employment status and work histories
of CHA residents. What started as a pilot of job placement trailers at a few
sites has developed into 8,000 job placements through the Service Connector over
the last six years and a new, comprehensive three-year workforce development
strategy started in 2006.
Commissioner Hanson described MOWD’s commitment to
integrating CHA residents into its existing employment programs and
collaborating with CHA and its partners to create a “seamless system to align
residents to businesses and employment.” The ongoing challenge, Hanson stated,
is placing the right person in the right job.
Bob Giloth of the Annie E. Casey Foundation began by posing the question,
“why should a kids’ foundation like ours be concerned about workforce
development?” The answer, he said, is because “kids do better in strong
families, and families do better when they live in communities that support
them” on numerous levels, including adequate workforce development and job
opportunities. He went on to discuss national labor force trends and concerns
for the country’s workforce in the future, specifically the need to address
literacy problems and integrate adult education with technical skills training.
Bob Giloth, Casey Foundation
According to Giloth, the workforce development efforts connected to the CHA
Plan are categorized as “place-based strategies” aimed at targeting specific
developments and neighborhoods. Given the scale of the Plan and the number of
CHA residents providers are trying to reach, there are few, if any, comparable
examples from around the country. He also stressed “there is no silver bullet,”
thus CHA’s new strategy of customizing workforce development based on resident
employment status – chronically unemployed, sporadically unemployed,
consistently employed – makes sense.
Nevertheless, Giloth shared relevant insights and
lessons learned from the workforce development efforts of the Casey Foundation.
In particular, he outlined three specific findings from their work. First, the
predictor of getting a job is whether an individual has access to human services
and stable, affordable housing. Second, the predictor for 90-day job retention
is access to good job training and workforce development. Third, the predictor
for one-year job retention is ongoing skill development. In his experience,
these results hold across all levels of job readiness. Moreover, both employee
benefits and positive wage adjustments over time have a significant impact on
job retention.
Giloth divided the challenges faced by CHA and its
partners into scope, scale and duration issues. In terms of scope, it is
important to “get the programs right” and combine the right “ingredients” –
employers, follow-up, quality control, etc. Another challenge regarding scale is
creating the workforce development infrastructure necessary to serve “lots of
people at one time” and to manage so many partners. Finally, workforce
development strategies require duration in terms of momentum and funding. The
goal is not to end up promoting people to become working poor but to help them
achieve economic stability. As Giloth stated, “becoming a steady worker is a
process, not a program.”
Evelyn Diaz
outlined the role of the
Chicago Jobs Council (CJC) in CHA’s new Workforce Development Initiative. CJC is
responsible for coordinating and facilitating regular meetings between CHA and
its advisers and partners in the initiative. In addition, CJC helps organize
participating public agencies to combine and maximize resources. Diaz said she
is proud of the progress thus far in convening such a diverse group of
stakeholders. She also expressed enthusiasm about the initiative’s “potential to
create major systems change.” The goal of the three-year initiative is to
prepare 3,000 CHA residents for successful employment through access to
supportive services, education, training, and job placement. The initiative also
involves strategies to increase employer engagement in hiring CHA residents and
an ongoing evaluation by an independent party that began in December 2006.
Evelyn Diaz, Chicago Jobs Council
Although there are work requirements in the new mixed-income communities,
Diaz stressed the approach of the initiative is not to “single out those most
likely to return” to these communities, but to make services available to all
residents. Moreover, to provide focused service delivery, residents are
categorized based, as mentioned above, on their employment status and history
and workforce development goals, and programs are tailored for each group. She
emphasized that “numbers are important,” but the initiative’s partners are
interested in “peeling back” those numbers and looking at residents’ lives to
see how effectively they are moving toward self-sufficiency. Diaz also discussed
some of the challenges ahead, including the need to secure additional
commitments from a broader range of participants such as public agencies,
community-based organizations, employers, and private funders. She closed by
stating the major lesson learned in the initiative’s first year is the need to
“always rethink assumptions about the best way to serve specific populations.”
Angela Starks
described the partnership
between
City
Colleges
of Chicago (CCC)
and CHA to provide training and career pathways to residents. She pointed out
that many of CCC’s students face the same challenges as CHA residents, and that
residents’ math and literacy levels are comparable to the general CCC student
population. CHA residents must complete standard placement tests and are then
offered either a “career bridge” to a specific professional field (nursing,
commercial truck driving, customer service, etc.) or remediation program
depending on their academic needs. Academic advising is an important part of the
process to ensure a resident’s interests are matched with jobs in growing
industries such as nursing and health care.
Angela Starks, City Colleges of Chicago
Between 2004 and 2006, approximately 1,157 CHA residents attended CCC
orientation, and of those, 1,079 completed the required testing. Approximately
223 residents have completed technical training, exceeding the goal of 100
training enrollments. Since the collaboration with CCC and CHA began,
eligibility for CHA residents has increased, meaning more residents test above
ninth grade level and qualify for program enrollment, said Starks. Still,
literacy levels remain a challenge, especially those below sixth grade level.
Looking ahead, Starks stressed the need for connecting with more employers,
streamlining residents’ transition from remediation programs to training, and
improving communication with CHA, its partners, and most importantly, residents.
Mary Howard’s work in transitional jobs at Heartland
Human Care Services, Inc. (HHCS), is motivated by her strong belief that
“everyone has the right to housing and to employment that supports it.” In April
2005, HHCS launched a transitional jobs program for CHA residents at the
ABLA/Roosevelt
Square
site. The program, as described by Howard,
seeks a “rapid attachment to workforce” involving a 60-hour work readiness
training followed by placement in a paid position with an employer partner. The
individual’s salary is subsidized by HHCS, so the labor comes at no cost for
employers. Residents are assigned a mentor at the job site and attend career
development training regularly throughout the transitional employment period.
Upon completion, residents have gained valuable work experience and references
and may be eligible to apply for an available permanent position with the same
employer or seek out other full-time employment.
Howard mentioned several challenges with transitional
jobs programs and general workforce development. The need for residents to
receive consistent, frequent contact from many people make transitional job
programs expensive and difficult to manage without sacrificing quality. In
working with CHA residents, HHCS regularly has to turn down services to
non-leaseholders who would benefit from the program but not qualify. Despite
having 129 employer partners, making linkages with new employers remains an
obstacle. Finally, it is difficult for residents to weigh the benefits of
getting work experience that is not necessarily on their ideal career path even
though it gives them valuable work routine habits and a good reference. In her
work, Howard has learned that the best way to sell the transitional jobs program
is to have participating residents explain it and tell their stories. The future
of transitional job programs, and other workforce development efforts, depends
on employer partnerships and increased funding, said
Howard.
Following the panelists’ formal presentations, the
audience participated in a brief Q & A session. Below is a sampling of
topics that were discussed:
-
Engaging residents and employers in the Workforce
Development Initiative
-
Diaz said the Service Connector has the initial task
of engaging residents and informing them of their options for workforce
development services. Howard stressed the importance of understanding a
resident’s goals and that they may be ambivalent about what they want. For
employers, Howard emphasized the need to frame discussions around the
employer’s attrition and retention needs and how CHA residents fit that.
Giloth reiterated that the service provider and employer both have the same
definition of job readiness, which is a selling point. Starks stated
residents must also be informed about what it means to have a specific
career. Also, PNC is developing a marketing plan to attract employers to
participate in the initiative.
-
How job placements are made
-
Besides transitional jobs programs, Diaz said
Service Connectors often provide direct job placements. In addition,
residents may be placed through the public workforce system (i.e. Workforce
Investment Act programs) or find employment on their
own.
-
Getting resident input
-
According to Diaz, CJC relies on Service Connectors
and other resident service providers to gather information that can shape
how initiative programs develop. Hibbs indicated that data and demographics
are another source of information. Moreover, Hibbs stated the initiative’s
ongoing evaluation will involve focus groups that include CHA
residents.
-
Resident incentives for working
-
When residents become employed, there is a one-year
period of earned income disregard in which income from employment is not
included in income for rent, said Harte. In addition, CHA is piloting
savings programs at a few sites similar to HUD’s Family Self Sufficiency
program (based on matching money set aside by residents as escrow).
-
What message of hope should we give residents
-
Howard said residents should know there are many
concerned providers that have their best interests in the forefront. Giloth
echoed that the message has to be conveyed by “those who are moving ahead”
because “that’s what convinces
people.”
??