Regional Action to Advance Quality Jobs

Summary

In 2024, Jobs for the Future (JFF) committed to launch the initial phase of its Regional Action to Advance Quality Jobs (RAAQJ) project by 2025, engaging 640 stakeholders. RAAQJ builds on JFF’s ambitious North Star to connect 75 million individuals, particularly those without 4-year degrees, Black learners and workers, women, and people with criminal records, across the United States with job opportunities over 10 years. This regional initiative will equip leaders with tools and strategies necessary to reshape their regional economies and connect more people with quality jobs. JFF will select six regions for an inaugural cohort to develop detailed, cross-sector regional job quality action plans and in turn provide funding for implementation through an open request for proposal process. The lead applicant will be a permanent, place-based agency or institution with a track record of successfully convening community partners and will identify and collaborate with key community stakeholders to codesign the collective agenda and execute the regional action plan.

Approach

Jobs for the Future (JFF) commits to launching the Regional Action to Advance Quality Jobs (RAAQJ) by 2025. Seeking to significantly expand the number of quality employment opportunities for people facing systemic barriers, RAAQJ is an open RFP process to identify, recruit, and select regional leaders to develop customized, place-based action plans and bring those action plans to life. Applications will outline a strategy for promoting regional economic growth by moving more people facing systemic barriers to advancement into quality jobs through collaboration with key community stakeholders across the private and public sectors.

JFF, alongside our North Star national partners, will select six regions in an inaugural RAAQJ cohort to develop detailed, cross-sector regional job quality action plans. JFF will prioritize geographies that have demonstrated their effectiveness, reliability, and bold leadership by way of past partnerships. JFF will further prioritize the selection of regions where labor market data indicates a concentration of priority populations. The lead applicant, or anchor organization, will be a permanent, place-based agency or institution with a track record of successfully convening community partners and will engage with key community stakeholders to co-design the collective agenda and develop the regional action plan. All told, 640 stakeholders will be engaged through this initiative.

To support the regions, JFF will draw upon deep experience guiding community partners in designing, implementing, and expanding strategies to drive economic mobility and regional growth. Technical assistance and advisory services will be provided by experts across JFF in workforce and economic development, apprenticeship, employer mobilization, career-related education, research and evaluation, and interventions to support focus populations.

Job quality action plan development is complex work, but essential toward driving powerful, on-the-ground change in regions. Potential challenges – ones JFF has encountered and addressed in similar efforts – include ensuring adequate funding to support activities across all regions; ensuring meaningful participation among all stakeholders; and developing mechanisms to collect high quality data for continuous improvement and measuring progress toward the quality jobs goal

Action Plan

Strategic Development (Months 1-3) : At the outset of RAAQJ, JFF will develop and launch a national partner and fundraising commitment strategy, build a strategic communications plan to recruit regional participants, and identify target regions to inform promotion efforts. During this period, we will also develop the regional request for action, including the selection criteria that most effectively support our impact goals.

RFP Launch and Program Planning (Months 3-7) : JFF will launch the regional request for action in month 3, and review proposals and select regions by the end of month 5. During this period, we will also design the community of practice strategy and associated learning agenda, as well as build the initial impact measurement and data collection model.

Cohort Launch (Month 8) : JFF will convene the selected regions and launch the community of practice that unites the communities in collective action.

Regional Planning Phase (Months 9 – 12) : JFF will conduct regional and organization assessments and ecosystem mapping in each region, support worker-informed research efforts to pilot and prototype solutions, and support and guide the development of initial Action Plans.

Background

A job is not necessarily a good job, and too many people lack jobs that provide not just a living wage and benefits but stability, flexibility, autonomy, and economic advancement. Jobs for the Future (JFF) announced an ambitious North Star in 2023; In 10 years, 75 million people facing systemic barriers to advancement will work in quality jobs. JFF’s North Star is a national goal that demands bold commitments and actions from leaders across the nation’s learn and work ecosystem. Despite consistent demand for skilled labor, only 38 million people facing systemic barriers to advancement in the United States – people without 4-year degrees, Black learners and workers, women regardless of educational attainment, and people with criminal records – are working in a quality job. By releasing the North Star, we seek to spur collective action to double that number in 10 years to 75 million.

JFF has a 40-year history of building collaborative efforts in multiple regions across dozens of states, supporting proximate leaders – leaders who arise from the communities and issues they serve – in executing community-led strategies to transform their education and workforce systems. JFF will bring together deep expertise and a vast network of regional change agents to launch a multi-regional campaign to make measurable progress towards the quality job goal.

Progress Update

Partnership Opportunities

To establish the RAAQJ inaugural cohort requires an overall investment of at least $1M to resource the JFF project implementation team, research and thought leadership, marketing, and engagement. Communities will be prompted to provide a fundraising plan as part of their application to demonstrate how they’ll contribute to the full implementation of initial plans. Prioritization will be given to applicants that have identified local fundraising ‘match’ from public dollars and/or regional philanthropy.

JFF views the CGI platform as a significant resource, through its high visibility and through its media support, to help JFF elevate awareness and engage regional and national leaders to raise support and funds to reach our goal. We are excited about how working with CGI will help JFF engage partners and funders to reach its goal via collective action., JFF will provide the six regions with expert technical assistance and advisory services. These services include access to organizational and community readiness assessments to identify capacity gaps and planning tools to solve regional challenges; structured peer sharing and learning opportunities on focused topics relevant to job quality and equitable hiring practices; and access to national job quality survey data to inform their decision-making. Through these partnerships, JFF will equip over 600 advocates, public servants, and community members with tools and knowledge to improve economic inclusion and job quality across their communities.