West Michigan Works! has been selected along with workforce boards in five other states to receive tailored support and funding to pilot innovations that will help put more than 25,000 COVID-impacted workers back to work.
Launched in June in response to the pandemic-induced labor market crisis, the Future of Work Grand Challenge was created through a collaboration between the social impact organizations New Profit and JFF in Boston; MIT Solve and Jobcase in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and XPRIZE in Culver City, California, to identify and fund the most promising ideas and solutions to support a more equitable economic recovery and better meet the needs of low-income, middle-skill and underserved workers at the local level.
The $6 million Grand Challenge will empower social entrepreneurs to pilot their solutions through workforce boards with at least $100,000 in funding; rapidly reskill 25,000 displaced workers into living-wage jobs in the next 24 months (5,000 in Michigan); equip workforce boards with vetted tools to support the wave of displaced workers in six months; and achieve broader systemic change to help prepare 12 million Americans from underinvested communities for workforce success by 2025.
“Across the country, future-focused workforce boards are evolving their operations, strategies and services to the changing world of work and the ever-shifting labor market brought on by COVID-19,” said Maria Flynn, president and CEO of JFF. “The Future of Work Grand Challenge is bringing together the best of emerging technology with the critical infrastructure of local workforce organizations to build a better career navigation and employment experience for workers in need of support.”
The Grand Challenge team last month selected workforce boards, or regional economic and workforce development agencies, in six states as pilot partners to connect project teams with employers to inform the development of solutions that reflect real-time local or regional labor market demand. The boards will be responsible for recruiting participants for each pilot project.
West Michigan Works! in partnership with Michigan Works! Southwest and Michigan Works! Berrien-Cass-Van Buren, was chosen as the Michigan workforce board pilot partner, along with agencies in Connecticut, Virginia, Massachusetts, California and Texas.
According to Angela Jackson, who holds a doctorate in education leadership and is a partner at New Profit, the Future of Work Grand Challenge is an “unprecedented” collaboration between entrepreneurs, philanthropy, employers and workforce developers designed to put equity at the core.
“This is about breaking down historic silos within our public workforce system to help better serve the needs of employers and unemployed workers alike,” she said.
Jackson said the Grand Challenge encompasses two separate…
Read More: Workforce agency picked for $6M employment challenge