KentuckianaWorks is pleased to announce that we have been awarded a Generation Work™ grant through the National Fund for Workforce Solutions and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. This award is part of the second phase of Generation Work grants, which will center young adults of color in order to inform hiring, retention, and workforce advancement in our community.
Workforce development resources often focus on job seeker training, however we know that employer policies and practices play a significant role in how young adults connect to meaningful and quality jobs. This project allows us to expand our staff to build capacity for supporting changes in employment practice.
Most of our initiatives at KentuckianaWorks are built on a partnership model and Generation Work is no different. To make the most meaningful impact throughout the community with this grant, KentuckianaWorks is leveraging the collective impact model of the Coalition Supporting Young Adults, the career service delivery history of Goodwill Industries of Kentucky, Metro United Way’s commitment to operationalizing diversity, equity and inclusion, and YouthBuild Louisville’s experience helping young adults in meeting significant life goals.
This project will focus on four key areas:
Racial equity: addressing systemic and structural inequities that contribute to employment disparities for young people of color.
Employer engagement: changing practices to create more supportive workplaces for young adults of color.
Positive youth development: working with employers to improve how they engage and empower young workers.
Learning and evidence building: sharing lessons and best practices with the broader workforce development field.
In the first year, the Generation Work partners in our region will collaborate on projects that align both messaging about the value young adults bring to the workforce and workplace practices to support racial equity and positive youth development. We believe this approach will lead to improved employment outcomes for Black young adults in Louisville, who have an unemployment rate nearly twice as high as white young adults (17.5 percent vs 9 percent) and are more than 1.5 times more likely to be disconnected from work and school (18 percent vs 10 percent). The grant is renewable for two additional years, when KentuckianaWorks will define projects that are more specific to the employment needs of local young adults and businesses.
In addition to Louisville, there are seven other Generation Work grantee communities across the country, including Birmingham, Alabama; Chicago; Cleveland; Indianapolis; Philadelphia; Seattle; and Wilmington, Delaware. See the announcement from the Annie E. Casey Foundation here.
Interested in how we can support your efforts to design high quality jobs? Reach out to learn more.
Aleece Smith
Director of Inclusion and Sector Strategies
aleece.smith@kentuckianaworks.org
