Corporate Commitment Helps Omaha Jobs Program Thrive

In Omaha, Nebraska, a traditional workforce development-jobs training (WFD) program is attracting national attention for its unconventional partnerships - the leadership and investment by the city's business community:

...the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce is leading the effort to introduce chronically unemployed or under-employed people into careers that can support families...“The (Omaha) business community believed its competitiveness as a region was being affected by the low income and chronic unemployment of a particular neighborhood, and that it was an untapped labor force that they wanted to invest in.”

Typically, WFD programs are run by government and non-profit collaboratives, with businesses as relatively passive recipients of graduates, placing people in entry-level positions, albeit with some on-going support from the non-profit trainers.  Graduates are low-income adults facing significant barriers to employment: limited education, criminal records, mental or physical health problems, etc.  With businesses entering the supply chain at the end to take on new employees without playing much of a role in their training and development elevates the risk that these trainees will falter in their new, unfamiliar environments.

What's interesting about the Omaha initiative is that the Chamber is playing a pro-active, leading role in anti-poverty efforts in the city, pulling together partnerships and funding to fight illiteracy and other obstacles to employment in low-income communities.  The leadership piece is key here: if the business community has decided that residents who are outside the workforce are an untapped labor asset, then immediately corporations come to the table with a focus on increasing local employment.  That they come to the table to pursue local sourcing and business expansion in partnership with non-profits, anti-poverty advocates and local government signals that this can be a more just approach than just another low-road, low-wage strategy that too often results in no skills gain, high turnover, and general dissatisfaction for everyone.

Jobs for the Future, a policy and advocacy non-profit for workforce development initiatives in the US, is keeping its eye on Omaha for possible best practices and as a model for other cities.  Sounds like we should be paying attention too!

(Photo of Mutual of Omaha, one of the Collaborative's partners, by ShannonPatrick17)

(Boy did my fingers want to type Obama instead of Omaha every time!)