A Closer Look: The Generation Work Partnership in Northeast Ohio

As part of its Gen­er­a­tion Work™ ini­tia­tive, the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion is invest­ing in five part­ner­ships — in Cleve­land, Hart­ford, Indi­anapo­lis, Philadel­phia and Seat­tle — to explore new ways of con­nect­ing young peo­ple with the knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence they need to secure jobs that lead to fam­i­ly-sus­tain­ing wages.

The post below kicks off a series that will exam­ine the unique chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties at each site. The series also will explore how each part­ner­ship is work­ing to posi­tion young peo­ple — espe­cial­ly youth and young adults of col­or and those from low-income com­mu­ni­ties — for work­place success.

This entry focus­es on Casey’s part­ner­ship in Cleve­land, which serves 18- to 24-year-olds who are enrolled in fed­er­al work­force devel­op­ment pro­grams and eli­gi­ble to receive pub­lic benefits.

The Chal­lenge in North­east Ohio

In North­east Ohio, tra­di­tion­al edu­ca­tion and train­ing mod­els are fail­ing to equip young peo­ple — espe­cial­ly youth and young adults of col­or — with the skills and cre­den­tials nec­es­sary to land jobs that pay fam­i­ly-sus­tain­ing wages. African Amer­i­cans are less like­ly to find employ­ment and more like­ly to earn less when com­pared to their white coun­ter­parts. At the same time, employ­ers in man­u­fac­tur­ing, health care, infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy and oth­er high-growth sec­tors are strug­gling to fill job openings.

The Partnership’s Approach

The Gen­er­a­tion Work part­ner­ship in Cleve­land aims to address the bar­ri­ers — both sys­temic and insti­tu­tion­al — that young adults expe­ri­ence on the path to work­place success.

The part­ner­ship man­ages and sup­ports the Young Adult Resource Cen­ter (YRC), which inte­grates train­ing, job-place­ment, men­tor­ing and oth­er ser­vices designed to help young peo­ple con­nect to careers in grow­ing industries.

Key Part­ners

The North­east Ohio part­ner­ship com­pris­es non­prof­it ser­vice providers, work­force devel­op­ment orga­ni­za­tions, local gov­ern­ment and fun­ders. The core team has five members:

• Towards Employ­ment builds employ­ment path­ways to long-term careers while cre­at­ing a tal­ent pipeline for local businesses.
• Youth Oppor­tu­ni­ties Unlim­it­ed pro­vides edu­ca­tion­al and skill-devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties to teens and young adults. Youth Oppor­tu­ni­ties Unlim­it­ed also teams up with Towards Employ­ment to deliv­er ser­vices at a one-stop career cen­ter in the YRC.
• The Cleve­land-Cuya­hoga Coun­ty Work­force Devel­op­ment Board oper­ates the YRC’s one-stop career cen­ter and also admin­is­ters Work­force Inno­va­tion and Oppor­tu­ni­ty Act funding.
• Cuya­hoga Coun­ty, through its Human Ser­vices and Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment offices, admin­is­ters both state Tem­po­rary Assis­tance for Needy Fam­i­lies fund­ing and work­force devel­op­ment programming.
• The Fund for Our Eco­nom­ic Future — a col­lab­o­ra­tive of foun­da­tions, cor­po­ra­tions, uni­ver­si­ties, busi­ness­es and civic agen­cies — focus­es on advanc­ing eco­nom­ic growth in North­east Ohio.

Mea­sur­ing Success

The Gen­er­a­tion Work part­ner­ship in North­east Ohio defines suc­cess as pro­duc­ing a coor­di­nat­ed and acces­si­ble sys­tem that blends pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment with demand-dri­ven strate­gies to build qual­i­ty career path­ways for young peo­ple of all backgrounds.

Read more about the Gen­er­a­tion Work in North­east Ohio