Local Workforce Boards have a scalable, big-tent approach that connects the strengths of local community-based, education, business and other partners with services offered through the public workforce system. This broad and scalable approach is implemented through established networks of local partners that provide start-to-finish career coaching services including outreach, referral to skill development and training opportunities, and referral to wraparound support services that enable participation and success.
A large share of low-income workers who have lost their jobs need support meeting their basic needs while going through training and placement to re-career. This means providing paid internships, paid community service work, stipends, and other income supports in conjunction with occupational training and placement into middle-income career opportunities. Services Include: Paid Internships, Cohort-Based Occupational Training, Training Stipends, Scholarships, Registered Pre-Apprenticeship Programs, On-the-Job Training, Current Worker Training, and Registered Apprenticeships.
Wrap-around supports, including childcare, housing, and behavioral health support, are needed to enable people navigating poverty to participate in programs that will help them re-engage in the workforce. We must provide childcare support for people navigating poverty with young children otherwise the high cost and limited access to childcare will prohibit them from going through a training program and starting a new job. We must provide housing placement and eviction prevention for people who no longer have an income to pay their rent, otherwise the impacts of homelessness will greatly reduce their ability to get back into a new job and career. And we must provide supports such as mental health and substance use treatment as we help people return to new careers after the traumatizing impacts of the pandemic. Services include: Rental Assistance, Childcare, Utilities payment support, Computer and Internet Access, Transportation, Mental Health, Alcohol & Drug Treatment, Household Assistance Work, Related Clothing, and Tools. Local Workforce Boards coordination with the WSO system and distribute resources to community-based organizations, education entities, and other local partners with a requirement to serve BIPOC, women, young-workers, rural residents, and others most impacted by COVID -19. Services and outcomes are be tracked and reported using the existing statewide workforce data and reporting system (I-Trac). All data are disaggregated by race, gender, and geography.
