A workforce initiative that works for the entire Atlanta region.
Metro Atlanta has done tremendous work over the last decade to ensure we have the workforce in place to drive economic development. Yet, Metro Atlanta continues to see employers paying top dollar to recruit talent from other major metro areas. Meanwhile, many of our region’s residents are unable to access the opportunities and wealth produced here at home.
Strategic Development
In Fall 2019, executives from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, Atlanta Regional Commission, Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Metro Atlanta Chamber, and United Way of Greater Atlanta asked CareerRise to lead high-level conversations to define problems and identify opportunities for strategic development of metro Atlanta’s workforce system.
The group’s topline conclusion echoes common and recurring themes from workforce development system institutions, practitioners, customers (both job seekers and employers) and funders: the region’s workforce development system is not working at maximum effectiveness. The result? We’re leaving potential on the table.
In conjunction with these founding partners, CareerRise launched Equity@Work – a regional effort to engage workforce system stakeholders in a strategic planning process to develop a coordinated vision for the Atlanta region’s workforce future.
Our Mission
We seek to advance economic mobility to promote a competitive metro Atlanta economy by creating an accessible, holistic, and responsive regional workforce system.
The planning process began on March 4, 2020, with a kickoff event that gathered 120 participants from 66 different organizations and companies affiliated with the region’s workforce development efforts.
Our Strategic Goals
Equity@Work’s stakeholders have identified five strategic goals developed by synthesizing the issues and opportunities identified during stakeholder discussions:
Policy & Practice
Develop workforce policy and practice solutions that advance racial equity outcomes at the agency, local, state, and federal levels.
Metrics
Develop a regional outcomes metrics platform that leverages multiple data sources and promotes quality improvement through consistent evaluation and reporting of workforce development provider programs.
Training
Increase availability, access, and scalability of quality training programs leading to sustainable living wage jobs with career pathways that support improved worker economic mobility and resilience.
Youth Transition
Develop strategies and resources to increase the number of secondary students transitioning to sustainable living wage career pathways in quality jobs.
Employers
Increase coordination across workforce entities to strengthen engagement and responsiveness to employer needs while maximizing performance and equity outcomes.
Developing the Equity@Work Strategic Action Plan
If the 5 Strategic Goals are the “What”, then the next phase of strategic planning is to define the “HOW.”
Equity@Work is returning to broad stakeholder engagement in 2022, now that conditions will enable us to meet our objective of including diverse stakeholders in defining an action plan to improve racial equity outcomes in our workforce development system. We need the workforce system stakeholders, funders, and supporters to join this work to identify the specific action plan to make an impact in our five strategic goals and define the resources needed to make the needed advances.