Helping low-income New Yorkers access the labor market
The New York City Workforce Fund was established in 2001 to promote a robust, coordinated and effective workforce development system for low-income New Yorkers. The collaborative is guided by a committee of 12 contributing foundations and corporate philanthropies that pool resources, set priorities, and make joint decisions to support projects. Since 2001, the collaborative has awarded $16 million in grants for organizational capacity building, advocacy and policy research, employer engagement efforts, and demonstration projects. It also organizes quarterly meetings to discuss pressing workforce issues and to identify opportunities to coordinate and align funding.
Strategic Objectives (2021-2022):
- Promote racial and gender equity and increased economic mobility for low-income New Yorkers, and advance policy to ensure fair wages, working conditions, and business practices.
- Promote a strong value proposition for investing in coherent public and private workforce development systems.
- Influence public policy and programmatic priorities.
- Amplify and expand promising practices.
Executive Committee:
For more information, contact Roderick Jenkins at (212) 686-1088.
In 2021, The New York City Workforce Development Fund made more than $1 million in grants to train New Yorkers for in-demand, higher-paying jobs. The Fund built up the capacity of job-training programs across the city and improved their technology-based offerings. In 2018, one of the grantees, New York Association of Training and Employment Professionals, advocated for a more-effective, state-wide workforce development system, resulting in the unprecedented investment of $175 million in new State funding for workforce services through 2021. The Association also just played a critical role in working with the governor’s office to ensure that level of funding is included in the state’s 2023-2024 budget. The funding established a new State Office of Workforce Development to oversee the allocation, which will be administered to state employment agencies and authorities, regional economic development organizations, nonprofit workforce training providers, and private sector employers to provide workers with skills-based training and jobs.