Where the Funds Are: The Use of FSET Funds for Workforce Training Programs
This latest publication by the Center for Law and Social Policy acknowledges that funding for workforce and training programs is limited. Many of the traditional funding streams used to cover the costs of these programs have been cut, forcing administrators to think creatively about alternative funding sources. One funding possibility is the Food Stamp Employment and Training program (FSET), which supports employment and training services for food stamp participants. This policy brief provides an overview of the FSET program and discusses ways that workforce and training programs can access FSET funds to improve the employability of FSET participants. FSET funds can be used to supplement the funding of Transitional Jobs programs already serving food stamp participants.

Click here to read the report.

Hiring People with Criminal Records: The Employers’ Perspective
To gain a better understanding of employers' views about hiring people with criminal records, the Crime and Justice Institute (CJI) conducted a review of the national research literature and held focus groups with 28 employers in the greater Boston area. Drawing from various industries, the focus groups were divided between employers who had hired people with criminal records and those who had not.

Interviews with employers and union representatives suggest a number of strategies to help alleviate employer concerns and foster better connections between employers including, "Provide structured transitional employment opportunities so that people with criminal records can build positive work experience and references upon release from prison."

Click here to read the report.

Informing and Engaging Communities through Reentry Mapping
This article from the Urban Institute provides community organizations with information on how reentry mapping can be used in communities to collectively identify needs and resources available to individuals returning from incarceration. Neighborhood analysis providing locations of service providers, healthcare centers, employers, adult education programs, and others helps identify existing community assets and gaps in service provision on a broader level. This brief focuses on how to mobilize stakeholders and disseminate and utilize mapping results.

Click here to read the report.

Measuring Performance Outcomes
Increasingly, workforce development professionals are focused on achieving and documenting performance outcomes. The practice of collecting and using data not only satisfies funder demands for information, but also informs staff understanding of what is working and where opportunities exist for improvement. WorkforceUSA interviewed Marty Miles, author of Good stories aren't enough: becoming outcomes-driven in workforce development, to find out what tools and strategies are most effective in measuring performance outcomes.

State Policies to Help Youth Transition Out of Foster Care
This brief, from the Center for Best Practices at the National Governor's Association, provides practical information on what States are doing to serve youth aging out of the foster care system. These youth are more likely to be homeless, incarcerated, unemployed, and unskilled. States have implemented activities such as connecting youth to relationships with caring adults; assisting youth with managing health needs; and offering education and employment programs and life skills training. States forming public-private partnerships with specific employers and other supportive employment programs are examples of how to connect foster youth with employment.

Making Connections: Engaging Employers in Preparing Chicago’s Youth for the Workforce
Engaging employers is key in supporting youth transition in the workforce and foster job retention and advancement. This paper, from the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, provides the findings from interviews with youth program providers, employers, and policy makers. Researchers conclude by identifying disconnects in the service delivery infrastructure, and offer recommendations on how providers can expand employer involvement.

Click here to read the paper.

This PowerPoint presentation, developed by The Workforce Alliance, offers a concise, visual representation of The Bush Administration's 2008 Federal Budget Proposal, specific implications for education, labor, and human services, along with current policy platform opportunities. 

The American Express Economic Independence Fund supports the delivery of financial literacy education to currently underserved adult segments of society, including the newly employed, young workers, individuals moving from welfare to work, and immigrants. The fund supports initiatives that encourage, sustain, and develop economic self-reliance through programs that:
* Serve youth, emphasizing school-to-career and other career readiness programs, with a priority on partnerships with the travel, hospitality, and financial services industries;
* Build awareness about career and employment options for individuals facing significant barriers to employment and provide education, training, and workplace experiences so they may actively pursue these options;
* Provide education in the fundamentals of business and economics, the importance of savings, the basics of personal financial management and related consumer issues; and
* Promote entrepreneurship.

A youth TJ program would be a great strategy to propose to this foundation because it combines the education, training, and workplace experience aspects of this grant.

Click here for more information.

California Community Foundation grants support workforce development, educational, and other innovative projects of nonprofit organizations in Los Angeles County, CA. The grants aim at:
*revitalizing neighborhoods – establishing collaborative communities where individuals feel they have a stake in the well-being of the community;
*strengthening and expanding economic opportunity – placing adults in jobs with a livable wage and entry into the workforce; and
*building healthy communities – ensuring the physical and mental assets for individuals to be self-supporting. 

An advocacy project or a collaborative TJ program that makes the case for strong, healthy communities through providing Transitional Jobs would be a good proposal for this foundation.

The Road to Good Jobs: Building Workforce Partnerships Conference, will be held in San Jose, CA, May 9-11. Inspired by a recent series in the American Prospect, The Road to Good Jobs tackles the systemic disconnect between investment in training and education, too often viewed as a silver bullet, and the multifaceted and sometimes contentious subject of “good jobs.” Network with leading national thinkers, writers, and practitioners; share innovations in practice and policy; learn developments from the State Capitol and Capitol Hill; and explore models and lessons from California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, and other states. Click here for details and registration.

8th Gathering of the Social Enterprise Alliance will be held in Long Beach, CA, April 17-19. This annual event provides access to information and tools that help mission-based “social enterprises” – organizations that pursue financial sustainability through earned income ventures. The NTJN will be presenting the TJ model at this conference: The Transitional Jobs Strategy: Charting a Path Towards Sustainability. Click here for conference details and registration.

“Raising the Bar: A New Paradigm in Ex-Offender Reentry,” a conference on the role of community in the re-integration of formerly incarcerated citizens, will be held May 3-5 in Dayton, OH. Presented by PowerNet of Dayton. Click here for more information.

2007 National Offender Workforce Development Conference, "Becoming a Second Chance Society Again," will be held in Charlotte, NC, April 2-5. New in 2007: Workshop Track for Faith-Based Organizations. The NTJN will be honored at this conference for their outstanding contribution toward breaking the cycle of recidivism. Click here for schedule and registration.

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