Improving Access To Work Supports

The Great Recession has demonstrated the importance of work supports to low-income working families. Recently, foundations and government agencies have intensified efforts to improve access to work supports while streamlining their delivery.

A policy brief prepared by South by North Strategies, Ltd.  for The Working Poor Families Project explored ongoing initiatives and examined how the Project’s state partners could support and advance efforts aimed at strengthening public work support programs. In particular, the brief identified five state policy areas for the Project’s state partners to consider and potentially pursue.

Philanthropic Efforts to Better Postsecondary Education

Strengthening state postsecondary education and skill development systems – systems that encompass such programs as technical education, literacy instruction, and occupational training – requires comprehensive changes to public policies and institutional practices. To that end, various philanthropic foundations recently have launched ambitious, multi-state, multi-year efforts to raise the educational attainment of Americans.

To boost understanding of the recent wave of philanthropic interest in state postsecondary education and skills development systems, The Working Poor Families Project, a national initiative to strengthen state policies and programs, asked South by North Strategies, Ltd. to identify several reform efforts designed to expand the opportunities available to low-income working families.

The resulting report, Widening The Doorways of Opportunity, profiles seven efforts: Achieving the Dream, the Postsecondary Success Initiative, Complete College America,  Breaking Through, the Developmental Education Initiative, the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, and Shifting Gears.

The South’s Difficult Decade

Even before the onset of the “Great Recession” in December 2007, the 2000s had proven to be a difficult decade for working Southerners. Across the region, the 2000s were a period marked by meager job growth, rising joblessness, rapid industrial change, and mounting economic hardships. And the decade’s developments offset many of the gains – most notably against poverty – made by the region during the 1990s.

These findings come from the recent briefing paper, The South’s Difficult Decade, prepared by South by North Strategies, Ltd. for The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation in Winston-Salem, NC.

The brief summarizes key economic changes that occurred between 2000 and 2009 in the ten states where the foundation is active: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

Demand-Driven Development in Rural North Carolina

In late 2009 and early 2010, South by North Strategies, Ltd. conducted a review of “demand-driven” workforce development models for the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center. This research was part of the Rural Center’s “Rural Community Mobilization Project,” which is funded by federal recovery funds provided through the state Department of Commerce.

The project’s purpose was to help selected rural communities use demand-driven workforce development practices to respond to the recession. To that end, the Rural Center asked South by North Strategies to review existing demand-driven development practices in North Carolina and consult with key practitioners. Specifically, South by North Strategies considered the current economic context, critiqued the  demand-driven workforce development model, profiled several promising strategies, and identified key lessons.

Strengthening State Economic Development Systems

Recent years have seen a rapid escalation in state economic development spending: spending that in 2008 totaled at least $10 billion. Given the scale of public spending, some state leaders have begun to inquire about the effectiveness of economic development activities and just who receives the benefits. Instead of relying upon old assumptions, some leaders are urging their states to think more carefully about the public benefit and the fundamental link between skill formation and job creation.

To encourage this transition, The Working Poor Families Project, a national initiative to strengthen state policies and programs, asked South by North Strategies, Ltd to identify promising ways of  better orienting state economic development systems around an education and skills agenda that reflects the economic needs of low income families. The report, entitled Strengthening State Economic Development Systems: A Framework for Change is available through the project’s web site.

Building a Foundation for Family Economic Success

To document the policy successes achieved by its 25 state partners, The Working Poor Families Project (WPFP) retained South by North Strategies, Ltd. to write and design a report documenting accomplishments between 2002 and 2009.

Entitled Building a Foundation for Family Economic Success, the report found that the WPFP’s state partners have helped generate or preserve over $2.5 billion in state investments in low-income working families. In the process, these organizations have brought the concerns of low-income working families into an array of policy debates.

The WPFP is a national initiative to strengthen state policies and programs influencing the advancement of low-income working families. Specifically, the WPFP  strives to shape state policies related to postsecondary education and training for adults, economic development practices, and work supports and social insurance.

By describing the WPFP’s distinctive process of policy change, the new report shows how the WPFP positions state-based nonprofit organizations to champion investments in working families. Consequently, low-income working families in many states are better able to obtain financial aid, increase their education and skills, access good jobs, and make ends meet.

Click here to view a webcast in which the report’s findings are discussed.