WorkAdvance is a national initiative launched by the New York City Mayor’s Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO). After a competitive RFP process, CEO selected Towards Employment to lead the Northeast Ohio WorkAdvance project.
WorkAdvance is a workforce development model designed to assist unemployed and low-wage working adults increase their employment and earnings by finding good quality jobs in targeted sectors that have room for advancement within established career pathways. WorkAdvance builds on evidence from experimental evaluations of employment retention and advancement programs operated in the United States and the United Kingdom, and quasi experimental evaluations of New York City’s career advancement and sector focused. Further, recent evidence from Public / Private Venture’s (PPV) study of sectoral employment programs indicates that providing industry-specific skills that meet the needs of local employers in specific demand occupations are successful in significantly raising the earnings of low income participants. The WorkAdvance program model combines the most successful and promising of these advancement strategies.
SIF WorkAdvance will be implemented by the following providers:
- Per Scholas (New York City, NY)
- St. Nicks Alliance (New York City, NY)
- Towards Employment (Cleveland & Youngstown, OH)
- Madison Strategies Group (Tulsa, OK)
CEO and the Mayor’s Fund would like to thank their partners and supporters, including Bloomberg Philanthropies, Open Society Foundations, the Fund for Our Economic Future, the Tulsa Community Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and MDRC.
Funding support: WorkAdvance is supported by the Corporation for National and Community Service under Social Innovation Fund Grant No. 10SIHY002. The Social Innovation Fund grant was made to the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City and the NYC Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO), which then selected providers across the country to replicate five of CEO’s most promising programs. Additional funding for WorkAdvance is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies and Open Society Foundations. Significant funding for the Northeast Ohio site is provided by the Fund for Our Economic Future.
