Overview

The goal of this work is to improve training and employment opportunities for marginalized workers.

The Challenge

Access to good jobs and training is critical to America's economy and stands at the center of our vision of opportunity. As the job market in the United States has shifted dramatically over the past three decades, growing numbers of Americans suffer from chronic unemployment or are trapped in low-wage jobs with limited resources to support a family and move up the economic ladder.

Members of racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, and other marginalized populations are among the most vulnerable.

Expanding the employment opportunities of low-wage workers requires effective workforce development strategies that are responsive to their needs, provide access to quality training and connect them to jobs and career paths that increase their mobility and earning potential.

What We're Doing

We support four main strategies to improve opportunities for low-wage workers:

• Working with stakeholders in the workforce development system—including government entities, community colleges, training providers, community-based organizations, funders, and organized labor—to make it more effective and responsive to the needs of disadvantaged populations
• Supporting innovations that increase the effectiveness and ability of training programs to better deliver workforce development services to low-wage workers
• Helping to increase the capacity of worker centers to develop training initiatives and connect their members to established training providers like community colleges
• Supporting research and policy analysis on workers, employers, low-wage jobs, labor markets, best practices, replication and scaling up of activities that improve the lives and working conditions of low-wage workers

Learn more about how our strategies and approaches shape our grant making.

From the Newsroom

• News from Ford: National Fund for Workforce Solutions Recognized With Inaugural Award from Social Innovation Fund Ford grantees among 11 nonprofits honored by Washington’s Social Innovation Fund for promising new approaches to America’s social challenges.
• News from Ford: National Fund for Workforce Solutions Receives Council on Foundations Award for Collaboration 2010 Distinguished Grantmaking Award honors fund's innovation, leadership and vision
• In the Headlines: Overhauling States' Stretched Unemployment Funds The TakeAway podcast features Helen Neuborne, Ford's director of Quality Employment, on statewide efforts to address unemployment
• In the Headlines: Ford Foundation to Assist Public Benefit Programs New York Times reports on new initiative to help unemployed and low-wage workers achieve economic security

From the Library

• Bridges to Opportunity for Underprepared AdultsA guide on lessons learned from the Community College Bridges to Opportunity initiative, it presents strategies to improve education and employment outcomes for underprepared adults. 952 KB

Regions

Team

• Helen Neuborne
  Director
• Héctor R. Cordero-Guzmán
  Program Officer

What We're Following

• Behind the Kitchen Door Restaurant Opportunities Centers United reviews local studies on the health of the restaurant industry
• Working Without Laws National Employment Law Project reports on violations of the rights of low-wage workers in New York City 993 KB