By Shannon Holmes
June 19, 2006

Mayor’s workforce directors from cities across the country gathered in Las Vegas for the Conference of Mayors Workforce Development Council (WDC) Board meeting held in conjunction with the 74th Annual Conference of Mayors. Sallie Glickman, President of the WDC, welcomed board of trustees and council members from cities across the country including Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus (GA), Denver, Elkhart (IN), Fort Wayne (IN), Fort Worth (TX), Hawthorne (CA), Los Angeles, Louisville, Lubbock (TX), Macon (GA), New Haven (CT), Philadelphia, Portland, Providence, San Francisco, Seattle and St. Louis.

The WDC Board addressed issues around the budget for fiscal year 2007, tying workforce development to high school reform and out-of-school youth, the barriers and challenges that remain accessing post secondary education, and engaging at-risk youth. The members of WDC also participated in a site visit to the Nevada Partners Home of the Culinary Training Academy, in the concurrent session on Poverty, Work and Opportunity and the Mayors Standing Committee on Jobs, Education and the Workforce at the 74th Annual Conference.

With the ever growing competitive global economy and the growing gap of youth prepared for the workforce or post'secondary education, WDC spent a large portion of the meeting discussing how to strengthen the connection between the workforce system and the education system.

To begin the conversation, Don Spangler, consultant for the Philadelphia Youth Network, and Ephraim Weisstein, Vice President of Youth Development and Education at the Commonwealth Corporation, presented ways to tie workforce development to high school reform and out-of-school youth. Spangler emphasized that cities must grow or import skilled workers to meet employer demands. He stated that current approaches to education and training are, for the most part, failing to produce the skilled workers needed to stimulate and sustain economic growth. In order to address this, the education and workforce systems must work together locally and nationally to develop a prepared and skilled workforce for the 21st century, according to Spangler.

Weisstein illustrated how a class of 100 youth would look after four years of high school and beyond. He stressed that during the discussion on how cities can address poverty through the Taskforce on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, the tie to youth is critical because of the high correlation between poverty and dropout rates. Weisstein noted that the local workforce system is “the neutral broker that has the ability to cut across jobs, health and human services and education and can be the glue that holds all the pieces together.” Furthermore Weisstein stressed that there is a drastic need for high school reform in order to have youth prepared to continue into post'secondary education or training or the labor market.

Gerri Fiala, Director of Workforce Research of the Workforce Development Strategy Group at the National Center on Education and the Economy, shared the barriers and challenges that remain in accessing post'secondary education and potential solutions in addressing them. Fiala noted that community colleges are dealing with the dropout issue due to long certification programs or waiting list to get into certain programs. Two significant barriers to the pursuit of post'secondary education or training are the lack of preparedness to advance and financial issues. Nationally, 42 percent of those who enter college are unprepared for the typical college courseload, with higher numbers within urban cities. Financially the cost burden of post secondary education continues to shift to students and families, resulting in higher hurdles to overcome to complete a continued education.

Fiala stressed that mayors have the ability to be the bridge between education, the workforce and community colleges to address the needs to the local labor market. In addition, teachers and school districts need to be engaged with community colleges and business to ensure that high school graduates are prepared to enter the labor market or a continuing education institution.

Charles Hokanson, Jr. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Strategic Initiatives in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education, presented the educational components of the American Competitiveness Initiative President Bush introduced to ensure that the American economy and workforce remains a leader in the global economy and the youth of this country are prepared to enter it. Additionally, Hokanson provided an update on other initiatives at the Department including No Child Left Behind (NCLB). In NCLB, improvements have been seen at the elementary and middle school levels, but the high school levels are stagnant. As a result, the Administration is beginning to develop a high school reform initiative, beginning with $1.5 billion as part of the American Competitiveness Initiative to begin to prepare the youth of this country for a 21st century workforce.

In cities across the country the population of at-risk youth continues to increase and as a result cities are creating initiatives to assist these youth in completing school and moving forward to become productive citizens within the community.

Father Gregory Boyle, Founder and Executive Director of Jobs For A Future and Homeboys Industries, shared with members two programs he began in Los Angeles to help at-risk and gang-involved youth. Boyle, a Jesuit priest, started Jobs For A Future, an employment referral center and economic development program in 1988. Jobs For A Future is, today, a nationally-recognized center that assists 1,000 youth a month in re-directing their lives. Through its unique and multi'service approach, Jobs For A Future offers hope to those for whom hope is often foreign.

Homeboy Industries economic development enterprises include Homeboy Bakery, Homeboy Silkscreen, Homeboy/Homegirl Merchandise, Homeboy Graffiti Removal, Homeboy Maintenance, and Homeboy Landscaping.

Elizabeth Fretwell, Deputy City Manager for Las Vegas, presented to the members of WDC the city’s Batteries Included Youth Initiative. The purpose of the initiative, spearheaded by Las Vegas Mayor Oscar B. Goodman, is to give Las Vegas a role in supporting the education of its youth and to help improve the outcomes of at-risk youth. Batteries Included brings together community resources to work towards a common goal — the health and safety of our youth, while helping to create a future workforce able to support the diverse industries in Las Vegas and the surrounding areas.

The initiative represents a public/private collaboration committed to education, youth development and community partnerships and a commitment to youth excellence, achievement and success. “Batteries Included” offers 12 weeks of summer employment workshops that provide training in life skills and job readiness. All youth participants are placed in summer employment with the completion of the workshop(s). Other programs that are offered include:

Teen Talks (youth facilitated open forums on youth issues)

Youth Councils (youth empowered to create programs and activities to serve their peers)

Life skills workshops

Banking and investment workshops

Outreach Services

San Francisco’s Community of Opportunity

Communities of Opportunity (COO) is a new way of working to transform San Francisco’s most neglected neighborhoods, starting with the Southeast sector. The mayor’s office proposes a “monumental change” to focus on reforming the way government delivers services, builds affordable housing and creates jobs and economic opportunity with more transparency and accountability.

The Southeast sector of San Francisco, one of its poorest communities (Bayview Hunters Point and Visitacion Valley neighborhoods), is poised for an historic transformation. Currently there are 2,600, families with 5,800 children, 67 percent of which earn under 185 percent of the federal poverty line. During the next five years, more than $1 billion in economic development investments will be made in this community. The challenge and opportunity is to ensure the re-emergence of strong communities of stable and self'sufficient families rather than further marginalization of these neighborhoods with displacement of residents.

Currently economic development investments (projected at more than $1 billion) in the Bayview Hunters Point and Visitacion Valley neighborhoods include the opening of the USCF Mission Bay campus (2005), redevelopment of Hunters Point Shipyard (2006), opening a new Home Depot store and the development of the Bayshore Corridor (2007), completed construction of a Town Center along Third Street (2007), redevelopment of the Schalge Lock Site (2008), development of Pier-7-backlands (2008), and development of the Candlestick Mall (2009).

To meet employment needs and improve residents’ self'sufficiency, a COO Jobs Initiative will include job training and placement for construction jobs throughout the city, local hiring targets for new developments, expansion of One'stop Career Centers, sector'specific training opportunities for southeast residents, coordination of community-based organization funding and accountability between agencies to improve job training and placement capacity, city job fairs in the redevelopment area and linking residents to jobs created by COO.

Members of WDC participated in a four hour visit to Nevada Partners, home of the Culinary Training Academy. Nevada Partners, a private non-profit organization founded in 1992 by then Nevada Governor Bob Miller and local business leaders, helps address the workforce needs of the community by matching trained employees with employers who reward hard work by paying livable wages and offering good benefits in a safe, respectable work environment.

The Culinary Training Academy (CTA) was started in 1993 predominately by Steve Wynn, one of the major property owners in Las Vegas. This is a joint partnership between 30 major hotel/casino properties on the Las Vegas Strip and Downtown and the Culinary and Bartenders Unions, to train thousands of employees for work in entry-level position as guest room attendants, bus persons, kitchen workers, porters and stewards. CTA also trains incumbent workers to qualify for outstanding careers as food servers, professional cooks, gourmet food and wine servers and sommeliers. Customized training identified by employers is provided by CTA as necessary to fill skills gaps.

A large portion of the funding for the training has resulted from a negotiated agreement between the labor unions and hotel properties to have three and a half cents for every hour each employee worked at the participating hotels. Since the beginning of the program there have been over 25,000 directly through CTA and an additional 10,000 directly though Nevada partners.