Funders Series
Chicago Jobs Council (CJC) believes in an anti-racist workforce system that can build transformative relationships between people and systems, focusing on equitable access to quality jobs and removing funding barriers that inhibit progress and limit service providers. This represents the core essence of CJC, and we steadfastly uphold these beliefs as foundational pillars guiding our mission.
With this in mind, CJC partnered with the Chicagoland Workforce Funders Alliance to deliver a series of six sessions anchored in trust-based philanthropy. The 2023 Funder Series provided a forum for public and private funders of workforce development to come together to learn and discuss strategies that will better support the organizations funded by their grants. Area funders participated in an eight-month learning series, where the following topics were discussed:
Anti-Racist Workforce Development System
Shift in Program Design & Delivery
Changing Narratives
Disruptive Power Dynamics
Trust-Based Philanthropy
Reflection & Action Planning
Overwhelmingly, funder participants deemed this a space that fostered collaboration of ideas and continued learning with colleagues as thought partners to move the needle in the workforce development ecosystem. One funder stated in a follow-up survey, “...this has helped us understand how to look more deeply at bias and racism in the workforce system, address issues of white supremacy that is pervasive, and integrate what we are learning into our trust-based philanthropy approach, particularly our practices, and cultures.”
CJC is committed to conducting extensive research to understand the best practices in workforce service delivery and how these best practices can be applied and established for more inclusive organizational cultures that ultimately improve outcomes for job seekers. More recently, we have taken a closer look at the field through the critical lenses of racial equity and access to understand how well people are served in order to achieve successful outcomes. Through this work, we have learned that for workforce services to be effective:
Organizations must center the job seeker, equipping them to understand and master their executive functioning, workplace navigation, and technical skills.
Programming must be individualized to the job seeker, not “one size fits all.”
Organizations must embed behavioral science, racial equity, trauma-informed care, and a client-centered mindset into their cultures.
This is no small lift, and the burden of change does not just lie on the workforce entities providing direct service. Aligning mechanisms and entities that fund service providers is essential for the workforce ecosystem and is the only way to see a lasting shift in our culture.
The CWFA and CJC are committed to continuing this collaboration and are planning part two of the Funder Series for the next fiscal year. It will include a project the participating funders will work on collectively throughout the sessions. This series aligns with our visionary goal of transforming relationships in the workforce development ecosystem based on trust and respect, including collaboration and transparent communication where all parties are valued and seek to remove harmful power dynamics.
