Assessment of Racial Equity in Workforce
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Hello Financial Opportunity Center Network,
We hope you and your loved ones are all healthy and well.
In this newsletter, we would like to take the time to address racial inequality and our country's reawakening after the murder of George Floyd. As cities nationwide continue to rise up against systemic racism and oppression, we must also recognize our roles within the workforce development ecosystem and the power we have in the fight towards racial equity and closing the racial income and wealth gap. Our spotlight this month will be on racial equity in workforce development.
We would like to acknowledge that LISC is by no means an expert in this space but we are striving to work together to learn, build, and see real change in our communities. LISC's Family Income and Wealth Building team promise to put a greater emphasis on approaching our work through a racial equity lens. In doing so, we are committed to examining our own policies, processes, and data to make the necessary changes required to advance this agenda. We also are planning to put together peer sharing opportunities and invite any one within our network that is interested to join. To start, we would love to survey our network to learn from you all what work is already happening. Please take a couple of minutes to complete this quick survey.
Let's not forget that our "Remote Coaching" training series continues in July. Ellen Ray of Partners in Change brings an in-depth webinar series that takes a deep dive into concepts such as engagement strategies, managing assumptions, and addressing hard conversations all in a remote setting. You will not want to miss it. Register using the links below or visit our website to register today.
Enjoy the newsletter and we hope you can join us in one of our upcoming events.
Wishing you health and safety,
LISC Family Income and Wealth Building
FOC News
LISC Family Income and Wealth Building periodically offers webinars and in-person training on a variety of topics connected to Financial Opportunity Centers such as Salesforce data entry, program management, financial coaching, workforce development, and much more. This newsletter will keep you posted on all upcoming events. All interested can now subscribe to receive these updates on upcoming FOC events and webinars clicking here.
Unable to make it to one of our webinars? No worries, we record most of our events and post those recordings along with the slide deck on our webinar archive page*
*This page is currently under construction if you would need access to any past webinars please can reach out directly to Jackie Guzman.
Upcoming FOC Events
**All webinars will begin at 1:00 PM Central Standard Time**
JULY 2020
JUL-09 | 90 Minutes | Remote Coaching: Engagement
This session will cover how to encourage engagement in remote settings. Topics will include developing a bank of transferable coaching activities, building listening skills, and scenario planning.
JUL-16 | 90 Minutes | Remote Coaching: Exploration
Phone conversations tend to be transactional in nature, which is compounded currently by scarcity, crisis, and heightened anxiety. Exploration and diagnosing get to the heart of an issue that takes work. This session will cover backward design, using technology to organize actions, and rapid reflection and goal-setting.
JUL-17 | 90 Minutes | Protecting Consumers in the Time of COVID and Beyond*
This webinar hosted by Public Utility Law Project & National Consumer Law Center will focus on protecting low-income consumers as utility shut off moratoriums expire. Attendees will hear new perspectives from regulators, utility companies, and consumer advocates related to emerging state models and practices.
*Note this webinar will start at 1:30 PM CDT*
JUL-23 | 90 Minutes | Remote Coaching: Forward
Stickiness can be a challenge with remote coaching. Phone calls are easy to dismiss and feel we can reschedule. Phone conversations may have less perceived value than in-person visits. This session will cover encouraging honest evaluation, creating action steps and follow-up, and how to keep things positive in a difficult period.
JUL-06 & 20 | 60 Minutes | Salesforce Support Hour
Salesforce Support Hours are held on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month*
Drop into the Salesforce support hour to have ALL of your Salesforce questions answered, from data entry to reporting. This webinar is an informal setting that allows attendees to join in at any point during this time period. Come with questions or just join to listen to others' questions. * No registration required.
Spotlight:
Racial Equity in Workforce
The workforce development ecosystem has an important role in the advancement of racial equity. We know very well the disparity between the earnings of Black and White workers but the question is: How are we explicitly addressing this disparity? or as ABC in the Baltimore case study, Changing the Future: Building Racial Equity Across Baltimore's Workforce Ecosystem, asks, "How are we helping to reduce or disrupt the inequities that exist for communities of color?”. Connecting clients to employment opportunities and advocating for employer partners to provide greater quality jobs for our clients is one of the most common ways that we see workforce programs 'move the needle' on this work. The Aspen Institute has created a comprehensive Job Quality tools library which includes a section dedicated to Equity and Inclusion. The report prepared by ABC identifies what else can and needs to be done to move racial equity work forward by highlighting the role of a variety of practitioners within the workforce eco-system.
We are proud to also share The Power of Integrated Services, a white paper, released by the LISC Research & Evaluation team in June that examines recent outcomes for Financial Opportunity Center (FOC) participants to assess the early success of the Bridges to Career Opportunities (BCO) model. Researchers found the integrated services of the FOC model has aided in closing the income gap between White and Black as well as White and Hispanic workers (see graph below).
"Within the FOC and Bridges population, wage outcomes are more equitable than those in the country as a whole, suggesting that these gains are playing their part in reducing the nation’s income and opportunity gaps." read more.
Although we see these positive outcomes we know that this work is far from finished. We must all continue to seek out new opportunities within our work and intentionally apply a racial equity lens to it.
Shout out!
We would like to send out a special thank you to our guest speaker Ellen Ray from Partners in Change for her valuable expertise.
Thanks also to MetLife Foundation for their generous support in making the Remote Coaching training series possible.
