A well-trained workforce is essential to the recovery and continued growth of Illinois’ economy. Now is the time to invest in job training and education for those wishing to enter the workforce or upgrade their current skills.

However, current investments at both the state and federal level fall far short of meeting the demand for these services. New sustainable resources need to be secured to take successful state-level workforce and economic strategies from pilots to scale, with the flexibility to meet the changing needs of employers in communities across the state.

The 21st Century Workforce Development Fund Act (HB 852) creates the structure for a state-level fund to “promote the State’s interest in the creation and maintenance of a diverse and skilled workforce for the economic development of the State” and is the first step towards establishing a flexible, sustainable funding source for education, skills training, and other workforce development services that will build the 21st Century workforce that employers need to grow and Illinois needs to have a strong economy.

The Illinois Works for the Future Campaign is promoting implementation of this fund.

The 21st Century Workforce Development Fund is structured so that funds from any source—whether state general revenue; bond proceeds; federal; or philanthropic—can be deposited and used to support the priorities outlined in the legislation. The Act prioritizes Illinois residents with the greatest need for training: individuals with barriers to employment; individuals with low literacy and math skills; and workers with jobs affected by local, state or federal environmental policy.

Illinois communities with the greatest need for economic development because they have high rates of unemployment, underemployment, or poverty are also priorities under the act.

With an eye to ensuring the integration of economic development and workforce developing, it prioritizes Illinois industries with the greatest need for skilled workers and industries identified to be facing a critical shortage of skilled workers; as well as “green” industries such as energy efficient building construction, retrofit, and assessment; renewable energy; deconstruction and materials use; and sustainable manufacturing.

The Act allows for funds to be used flexibly to meet local needs for skills training, including:

• Innovative workforce strategies, including: occupational training, basic skills training, sectoral workforce strategies, transitional jobs strategies, and bridge programming.
• Additional funding for proven workforce strategies, including Illinois’ successful Job Training and Economic Development grant program.:
• Related workforce development services needed by individuals in order to succeed in training including job development and support services.
• Local capacity building, program development, and technical assistance activities necessary for the development of new education and training strategies.

Finally, the Act provides for accountable and transparent administration of the fund by requiring a competitive grant-making process administered by the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO).

Additional oversight is to be provided by an advisory committee of 21 individuals representing diverse public and private sector stakeholders including representation from: non-profit organizations; communities outside of Chicago; Local Workforce Investment Boards; labor unions; business; state agencies; and state legislators.

Transitional Jobs (TJ) programs are an employment strategy designed to help individuals overcome barriers to employment.  Programs allow participants to: learn work customs and routines through experience; acquire workplace skills; establish an employment record; and generate employer references to help them succeed in the labor market.

Emerging as a successful strategy only in the past decade, TJ programs recently have begun to receive funding through state and federal workforce development initiatives.

Transitional Jobs programs assume that everyone can work, but may need assistance in managing barriers in order to succeed in employment.  Barriers may include anything from lack of appropriate education to limited literacy to substance abuse or mental illness to a record of incarceration.

With appropriate case management, support services and confidence gained from success in the workplace, TJ provides participants with learning opportunities, earned wages (which often qualifies them to receive the Earned Income Tax Credit and other tax credits), and the support necessary to transition to full-time, permanent employment.

TJ programs typically have the following core components:

• orientation and assessment
• life skills/job readiness training
• temporary wage-paying subsidized employment
• case management and support services
• mentoring
• job development
• placement in unsubsidized employment
• job retention/incentives, and i)education and training

To date, research and evaluation studies of TJ programs have demonstrated noteworthy outcomes including that participants are more likely to be employed and stay employed following participation in a TJ program; and that participants have increased earnings and less reliance on public benefits over time.  The National Transitional Jobs Network is a clearinghouse for information about TJ programs.

TJ programs are continuing to attract the attention of policy makers and funders.  For example:

• The Neighborhood JobStart program is a partnership between the 2016 Fund for Chicago Neighborhoods and the Illinois Department of Human Services that leverages the federal TANF Emergency Contingency Fund authorized under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  The program will provide transitional jobs to over 2000 young adults and adults in Chicago from June to September of this year.
• Opportunity Chicago is a workforce development initiative that utilizes the TJ model as one of its strategies to prepare 5,000 public-housing residents for jobs.  Since January 2006, over 170 CHA residents have participated in transitional jobs.

• At the state level, The Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) administers one of the largest Transitional Jobs programs for ex-offenders in the nation and the Department of Human Services (IDHS) is in its second year of funding a TJ pilot project serving TANF cash assistance recipients at 4 sites in Chicago.
• For the first time, the FY11 federal budget includes a $40 million dollar appropriation for Transitional Jobs that will be administered by the U.S. Department of Labor in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Service and the Department of Corrections.

To date, Transitional Jobs programs have been funded in an unsystematic way.  The examples noted above reveal that most are operated with one-time funding and only on only a small scale.  In Illinois there is neither a state-level policy nor a dedicated source of funding.  IWF will capitalize on the momentum and success of TJ programs to work with policy makers towards sustainable funding supported by policies that allow the expansion of TJ programs.

Learn the Issues: Addressing Barriers to Employment (LINK TO PAGE)

In recent years, many nonprofit organizations have embraced the idea of social enterprise as a way to provide jobs for some of their hardest-to-serve clients and generate income for their organizations. Social enterprises are business ventures formed primarily to further a socially beneficial mission, while operating with the discipline, level of innovation and market responsiveness of an effective for-profit business. These organizations operate a business that employs its clients, and sells its products or services.  The earned income generated by social ventures can provide unrestricted funds to support the organization’s work. Just like a stand-along Transitional Jobs program, social enterprises help people with barriers to employment gain workplace skills and experience, and can also encourage entrepreneurship by giving their participant/employees skills that can lead to business start ups of their own.

In Illinois, several nonprofits have adopted the social enterprise model; the organizations below are just a sample.

Decatur is Growing Gardeners (DIGG), Decatur, IL
www.decaturdigg.org
DIGG is an emerging social enterprise that began in 2009.  DIGG engages low-income or unemployed persons to learn gardening skills and then garden, using the produce for themselves and their families and/or selling the produce at local markets.  Currently DIGG is partnering with Richland Community College to offer a non-credit basic gardening course for its gardeners. DIGG is on its way to becoming a vibrant social enterprise and establishing a role in the local marketplace with plans to selling vegetables at farmers’ markets and garden stands, develop agreements with restaurants and/or grocery stores to purchase vegetables from DIGG and its individual gardeners and partners, and to develop a kitchen incubator to promote ways for low-income participants to sell processed foods on their own.

Cafe Too
www.cafetoo.org
As a social enterprise of Inspiration Corporation, Cafe Too is a 13-week restaurant skills training program designed to help students learn basic culinary skills and concepts. Trainees gain hands-on experience preparing and serving meals to the paying public at the Cafe Too restaurant during the internship period. Each student is tested to receive a City of Chicago food service sanita­tion management certificate at the end of the program.

Cleanslate
www.cleanslatechicago.org
As a social enterprise of The Cara Program , Cleanslate provides transitional jobs related to neighborhood beautification, including cleaning sidewalks, parkways, public gardens and vacant lots. All Cleanslate participants are individuals affected by homelessness and poverty.

Learn the Issue Integration of Workforce and Economic Development