Taking the Initiative on Jobs and Race

As with the protagonist in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, a classic tale of a young black man’s experiences in the American South and North, the men served by Jobs Initiative sites are often prone to the “invisible man” syndrome. Unseen, because people refuse to see them, these young men feel undervalued and underestimated.

Cultural illiteracy has consequences for employers and employees. For employers, a high employee turnover rate can hurt morale, create instability and cause an expensive drain on a company’s bottom line.