The Role of a Workforce Development Intermediary in Building a Coordinated System for Disconnected Young Adults Presented By Maricela Brea, Bret Halverson with Randolph Peers

Background Lack of access of disconnected young adults (DYA) to work is not a recent phenomenon in NYC. The young adult unemployment rate in the late 1960s was lower in NYC than most other major cities, Drastic cutbacks in the 1970s because of the fiscal crisis resulted in NYC being described in 1980 as the “ youth unemployment capital of the nation. ” 2

While a number of efforts were made to address the issue, too often the focus has been on the scale of the problem rather than on innovative solutions. Funders in NYC have begun to support innovative new efforts to connect young adults with a rapidly changing labor market. Recent NYC reports (Young Adult Task Force, CSS, CUF and CEO) have suggested a range of promising strategies. 3

223,000 disconnected young adults in NYC---higher proportion of young people than in any other major urban area. Typically 16 to 24 years old and are out of school without a high school degree, largely unemployed and often with multiple barriers to employment. Many can read at no more than a 3 rd or 4 th grade level. 4

A number of exemplary community-based programs exist but the quality of young adult services is not what it should be. Many programs are more concerned about inputs than outcomes. Most programs are not intensive enough to make lasting changes. There is little coordination between programs--- no pipeline. 5

At each step of the way, young people face new barriers, drop out, and failure becomes cumulative. Funding has declined over the past 25 years, in part because past efforts were often ineffective and usually not strategically focused. The costs are: wasted lives, increased crime and incarceration, huge social services costs, reduced tax revenue, and decreased business competitiveness. 6

The Strategy: Comprehensive and Intensive Strategies are Required to get Better Outcomes 7

Intermediaries Work A growing consensus exists that intermediaries can play an essential role in the workforce development field if programs are to more effectively serve their dual customers (employers and job seekers). NYC has lagged behind other cities in the development of multi-functional intermediary organizations in the youth and adult fields. 8

The rationale was that intermediaries have been very successful in other fields (e.g., community development, public education) in raising large amounts of funding, distributing support for innovative new approaches and communicating with investors and youth intermediaries have been successful in other cities (e.g., Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles) in yielding promising systemic results. 9

The Role of a Youth Workforce Development Intermediary 10

The Stages of a Youth Workforce Development Intermediary 11

JOBSFIRSTNYC In 2006 the NYC Workforce Development Funders Group and the Tiger Foundation, agreed to support a business planning process to establish a youth workforce intermediary in New York City--- drawing on experiences of successful intermediaries in other large urban areas (e.g., Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles) through the Intermediary Network. 12

The business plan prepared by David LaGreca found that currently no neutral, independent, organizing mechanism exists in NYC to work across the public/private landscape for supporting more effective private and public investment, greater employer involvement, improving provider quality, spreading the best approaches, or driving out those programs that are not strong. There is no “market maker” to help rationalize what is an irrational, disjointed, and too often mediocre system. 13

JobsFirstNYC was created in July 2006, with lead funding from the Clark and Tiger Foundations, to serve as a neutral intermediary to champion the workforce needs of DYA. JobsFirstNYC is based on a belief that current services for DYA do not work very well because they are undercapitalized, flawed in their design and often not well delivered. As a result a very different strategy is needed in NYC if outcomes are to be improved significantly. It seeks to address weaknesses in current services provided to DYA in NYC through a powerful convening function. 14

The mission of JobsFirstNYC is to improve the system for these disconnected youth by working to help bring—effectively and efficiently--all available community, corporate,, human, organization, private and public resources to accelerate the connecting of out-of-school and out-of-work young adults with the economic life of New York City. 15

The work is accomplished by convening the myriad players involved in providing and funding services to this young adult population, coordinating and rationalizing the existing system, planning for the development of the signature programs to meet the needs of these young adults, and raising resources for new large scale initiatives. 16

JobsFirstNYC Activities Workforce Partnerships – Sunset Park Alliance – Lower Eastside Employment Network – The Bronx Collaborative Employer Engagement – Lower Eastside Employment Network – Roundtable discussions 17

Improving Program Quality – CBO Network Quarterly Meetings – Training through INet and WPTI – Workforce Leaders Academy – Commissioning of User Friendly Monographs Increasing Investment – Supporting Campaign for Tomorrow’s Workforce – Broker Partnership to Funding Community for Collaborative Initiatives 18

Sunset Park Youth Alliance Why are Workforce Partnerships Important? – The Design Process – Start Up – Implementation – Future Plans What has been the impact of the work on your agency? 19

What are the implications of this work for other parts of NY State? Why are Workforce Partnerships important? Where is the $? What are the implications for the leadership and staff in the field? How do we successfully engage employers? 20