CSW’s 2023 in Review

2023: A Year of Progress

At Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW), we continue to stand firm in our commitment to catalyzing change in educational and labor market systems, increasing economic mobility for individuals historically excluded from success. Reflecting on 2023, we are pleased to present an overview of selected accomplishments that have advanced our mission, values, and focus on racial equity and inclusion.

CSW embarked on over fifty distinctive projects throughout the year and embraced opportunities to collaborate with like-minded partners and funders who share our vision for a more inclusive future. We take pride in showcasing some specific examples of work that have shaped our trajectory over the past year. Join us in celebrating these milestones as we continue to pave the way for a more equitable and just workforce landscape in 2024.

Organizational Change and Growth

In 2023, CSW celebrated its 32nd anniversary, a milestone year that ushered in a wave of major changes. The beginning of the year marked a pivotal moment as CSW’s leadership transitioned and Kysha Wright-Frazier assumed the position of President & CEO. Throughout her inaugural year, Kysha demonstrated exceptional leadership skills, deftly managing the work of her predecessor while expanding CSW’s capacity and vision. In 2023, CSW exceeded several long-standing annual financial goals. This financial stability, coupled with a transition to being a fully virtual organization, positioned us to hire multiple new and exceptional staff, deepening our work in states, regions, and communities from coast to coast.

In 2023, our staffing increased by 22% with the addition of six employees including Amy Wallace (Director of Federal, State, & Local Systems Change), Devin Corrigan (Senior Policy Associate), Jenny Poole (Senior Policy Associate), Chris Shannon (Senior Policy Associate), Jason Render (Policy Associate), and Naima Mohamed (Senior Research Associate). A Request for Qualifications led to new and strengthened partnerships with dozens of consultants aligned with our mission of supporting the economic advancement of people who have been overlooked for far too long.

CSW cemented itself as an employer of choice, ranking in the 81^st percentile of the Gallup Q12 poll. The annual Gallup Poll serves as a valuable barometer of our organizational efficacy and influence. Staff rated highly CSW’s commitment to quality work that drives change, assigning high scores for the following prompts:

• At work, my opinions seem to count. (ranked 91^st percentile overall)
• The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important. (ranked 90^th percentile overall)
• My coworkers are committed to doing quality work. (ranked 93^rd percentile overall)

These results are a testament to the hard work and collective effort of our team, whose commitment to excellence and innovation continues to propel us forward. CSW always seeks to improve as opportunities for growth are presented, and we look forward to using our Gallup results to inform our decision-making in 2024.

Racial Equity and Inclusion

In 2019, CSW began our shift towards embracing racial equity and inclusion (REI) as a core tenet in our work. Over the past year, we have continued to incorporate REI into our internal and external functions, particularly through the creation and adoption of our Anti-Racist Approach framework. Our internal REI committee worked together with the entire staff to develop the which encourages the integration of REI into all aspects of our work. The Anti-Racist Approach framework identifies intentional ways CSW incorporates REI as a focus of our organization, including the following:

• Project Design & Implementation
  • Disaggregating Data
  • Centering Constituent Voice
  • Applying a Culturally-Responsive & Equitable Lens
• Accountability & Consistency
  • Conducting Equity Reviews
  • Utilizing KPI Data
  • Using Explicit Language
• Continuous Learning & Upskilling
  • Expanding REI Partnerships
  • Leveraging Community Knowledge
  • Developing Internal Competencies

You can learn more about the model and our continued REI efforts here.

CSW’s New Look

This year, CSW unveiled a new logo and an enhanced website! In early 2023, we initiated a rebranding initiative, beginning with the creation of a new logo. In the subsequent stage of our rebranding efforts, we completely revamped our website and digital footprint. The new interface prioritizes user-friendliness, enabling visitors to effortlessly navigate through the many aspects of our organization. This includes an upgraded resource library showcases our latest work.

Old CSW Logo

New CSW Logo

Featured Work

Competencies and Credentials

Advancing Community Equity and Upward Mobility (ACE-UP)
Funding by Lumina Foundation
Partnering with Urban Institute and U.S. Department of Labor
Advancing Community Equity and Upward Mobility (ACE-UP) continued the work begun in fall of 2022, receiving additional funding for an expansion through 2025. ACE-UP is a community of practice (CoP) composed of fifteen community college/industry partnerships across thirteen states. The purpose of ACE-UP is to design and uplift strategies colleges can employ to help their industry partners create more inclusive workplace environments leading to worker retention, advancement, and economic success, particularly for individuals from historically underrepresented and marginalized populations and communities. Experts at CSW, alongside nationally recognized researchers, professionals, and practitioners, provide coaching and technical assistance sessions to ACE-UP members, including bi-monthly group meetings and small group discussions.

Direct Care Worker Certification for Michigan
Funding provided by Michigan State University (MSU) (from the State General Funds and Michigan Labor & Economic Opportunity (LEO))
Partnering with MSU IMPART Alliance
CSW is working with IMPART Alliance at Michigan State University to build a series of competency-based certifications focused on the direct care workforce (DCW) and providing a strategy for envisioning a sustainable way to administer these certifications. In Michigan, DCWs are overwhelmingly women, disproportionately comprised of Black Michiganders (when compared to the state’s general population), and not yet paid a family-sustaining living wage. In 2023, CSW held discussions with DCW advocates and partners to understand their views on constructing a DCW certification, identifying a certifying body, and short-term and long-term goals while socializing the idea of a competency-based credential for Michigan DCWs.

Credential As You Go
Funding provided by U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences and Walmart Foundation
Partnering with SUNY Empire State University and Program on Skills, Credentials & Workforce Policy, George Washington University
CSW is a co-lead of Credential As You Go, a national movement designed to create a fairer higher educational system based on incremental credentials. During 2023, Credential As You Go published nine playbooks and several reports, and launched the Credential As You Go Network, comprised of 54 organizations including state systems of higher education, colleges and universities and other credentialing organizations. Selected other activities included hosting virtual events such as the Summit on Embedding Certifications into Academic Programs, Credential As You Go Network Conference, and presenting on Credential As You Go at numerous conferences and podcasts.

Federal, State, & Local Systems Change

RESEA
Funding provided by California Employment Development Department, Labor and Workforce Development Agency
Partnering with Trailhead Strategies, Inc.
This year, we were awarded a new project to improve the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) Program in California. The RESEA program is a federal grant program for states to assist individuals receiving unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, intended to reduce the UI duration through improved employment outcomes. Along with our partners at Trailhead Strategies, Inc., CSW is providing a variety of technical assistance to the RESEA program by conducting research and analysis, facilitating collaboration, and supporting real-time assessment and improvement of the RESEA program. CSW will collaborate with EDD and local service providers to give data-driven recommendations, support strategic planning, and promote adaptive planning for future economic changes.

A2B4Equity
Funding provided by ECMC Foundation
Partnering with World Education and University of Pittsburgh School of Education
The Ability to Benefit for Equity (A2B4Equity) pilot continued for a second year, testing college promise program funding specifically designed to pay for the first six credit hours of Ability to Benefit (ATB) students’ college and credentialing. Upon the successful completion of these initial six credit hours, ATB students become eligible for federal student financial aid, including Pell Grants. Improving access to federal student financial aid provides better access to postsecondary education and credential attainment while helping to address equity gaps. This initiative focuses particularly on Black, Hispanic, and other underserved students who historically face barriers in both secondary and postsecondary education. Four community colleges are actively participating in the pilot—two within the City Colleges of Chicago system (Truman College and Daley College) and two in the state of Michigan (Wayne County Community College and Mott Community College).

Blue Meridian Partners Workforce Design Session
Funding provided by Blue Meridian Partners
Partnering with IDEO.org
In collaboration with IDEO.org, CSW crafted a playbook for Blue Meridian Partners that shapes a set of potential philanthropic investment opportunities anchored on “big ideas” to support good jobs and living wages in the United States. This involved consulting field experts, conducting thorough desk research, and hosting an in-person workshop to envision future scenarios.

Improving Practices and Outcomes

Worker Centered Benchmarking Project
Funding provided by The Annie E. Casey Foundation
The Worker-Centered Benchmarking Project (WCBP) brought together an Advisory Council of workforce program participants and alumni to serve as the primary researchers to answer: 1) How do we know if workforce programs are achieving their intended impact within the communities where they operate and 2) How do we know what communities want from workforce programs or even how communities define success? Through an initial opening retreat, the Advisory Council gained foundational knowledge in workforce program evaluation, active listening, and effective questioning and applied through workshops and interviews with various workforce practitioners and funders. Since then, the Advisory Council has designed and conducted focus groups and developed an online survey for workforce program participants and alumni. The outcome of this work will be the creation of metrics that reflect how workforce program participants and alumni define success. The Advisory Council will develop recommendations for how providers, intermediaries, and funders can center participant voice in program design, implementation, and evaluation.

Systems Change Moonshot: Increasing Employment for Persons with Disabilities in MI
Funding provided by Autism Alliance of Michigan
CSW is supporting Autism Alliance of Michigan (AAoM) in assessing and informing their moonshot goal of increasing competitive employment rates for individuals with disabilities, particularly neurodiverse individuals, making Michigan a model state for employment outcomes for this target population. CSW provided initial feedback on their guiding strategic plan and then conducted national benchmarking research, business interviews, and focus groups with persons with disabilities to inform AAoM’s a summary report of next steps for the organization. This work promotes systems change resulting in more equitable access to employment and economic mobility for a population traditionally left behind in the labor market.

Workforce Benchmarking Network – Twin Cities
Funding provided by Greater Twin Cities United Way (GTCUW)
Greater Twin Cities United Way (GTCUW) enlisted its 2022-2025 Economic Opportunity Employment & Training grantees to identify a program metric that more closely aligns with that organization’s mission and is a stronger signal of the organization’s desired impact. These metrics more closely align with the work and mission of grantees and directly contribute to more lasting change in the lives of their program participants. They are also more indicative of a network of factors that lead to sustained financial stability and mobility rather than those that lie solely with the individual. CSW supported this work by researching how other organizations are creating incremental and systemic changes with similar guiding metrics—especially related to racial equity, job quality, and economic mobility for low-income job seekers and workers—and what GTCUW grantees can leverage and learn. When engaging with grantees as co-designers, philanthropic leaders like the Greater Twin Cities United Way are in a unique position to surface innovative workforce metrics that better predict financial stability and economic mobility and could better position workforce entities to change the systems playing field.

Research & Evaluation

Oakland80 Strategy Research Project
Funding provided by Oakland80 Initiative, Oakland County, Michigan
CSW assisted Oakland County with strategy consultation to support implementing its Oakland80 initiative, which aims to increase post-secondary attainment to 80% by 2030. As part of this work, CSW conducted a strategy research project, employing a culturally responsive and racial equity lens, to support the development of data and community-informed solutions to be implemented by the initiative. This project included in-depth secondary data collection and analyses, best practice research, and stakeholder engagement through partner and resident focus groups and conversations. The goal of the research was to inform the selection of tailored strategies that would benefit Oakland County residents most in need of post-secondary access and support. The project resulted in a public-facing report that outlines the data collection and the prioritized strategies that will support the initiative’s 80% goal.

Michigan Justice Fund Career Pathways and Profiles Project
Funding provided by Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, Michigan Justice Fund
CSW partnered with the Michigan Justice Fund to conduct a Statewide Landscape Analysis and Assessment to understand gaps in Michigan’s workforce system that prevent residents with justice-involvement from achieving economic mobility. As part of the project, CSW conducted significant research with Michiganders who were formerly justice-involved to understand their career interests and goals. As an output of this work, CSW developed a series of career pathways and profiles that reflect both those population-specific goals, occupations accessible to those who have been justice-involved, and occupations that will be critical for Michigan’s future economic success. These maps and profiles provide jobseekers and learners, as well as career counselors, navigators, and educational advisors, necessary information about career options and their potential for advancement within four occupational groups that show potential for family-sustaining careers in Michigan.

Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation Labor Market Information Research & Consultation
Funding provided by Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation
Since 2014, CSW has worked closely with Mayor Duggan’s team on the Detroit workforce system redesign as well as through conducting substantial research on the Detroit labor market and workforce development system for the City of Detroit, Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation (DESC), and other partners. As a continuation of this work, CSW is providing regular strategy consultation and research support to DESC. In 2023, this support has expanded beyond regular LMI data collection and reporting to include DESC staff capacity building on the quality use of internal program data and regional LMI data for systemic improvement. Capacity building includes detailed organizational assessment and staff training.

Trauma & Resilience at Work

Cultivating a Trauma-Informed, Healing-Centered, Resilience-Building Detroit at Work System
Funding provided by Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation
Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation (DESC) has been a pioneer in the workforce development field, making a significant investment over the last two years to help their staff become more trauma-informed and resilience-building for themselves, their customers, and their colleagues. CSW has provided staff training and organizational coaching on topics including the brain science of trauma, adopting new trauma-responsive practices, and cultivating cultures of healing and resiliency within their organizations. DESC is investing in a third year of CSW’s support to deepen and sustain this new way of working.

Equity, Trauma, and Resilience Training for EASTBAYWorks
Funding provided by Oakland Private Industry Council, EASTBAYWorks Consortium Members
CSW is working with EASTBAYWorks to provide training for workforce development professionals in its four-board area, including the City of Richmond, Alameda County, the City of Oakland, and Contra Costa County, California. The trainings include an “Introduction to Culturally Responsive Trauma-Informed and Resilience-Building Practices,” and “Managing Conflict Through the Lens of Equity.” Both are paired with an Action Lab, providing participants space to practice new concepts and skills, each offered twice to participants to increase access to training. To date, 100% of training participant survey respondents indicated that the training was effective and they would be able to apply the information they learned in the training, and 98% indicated they would recommend the training to colleagues.

Multiple trainings and presentations on Introduction to Trauma and Resilience
Funding provided by LISC Financial Opportunity Center National Convening; Federal Reserve Banks; State of Michigan NEAR Collaborative (Neuroscience, Epigenetics, ACEs, and Resilience); Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity Workplace Mental Health Employer Workgroup; and the Detroit and Wayne County Workforce Leadership Academy
CSW responded to significant demand across the country for foundational training on trauma, healing, and resilience–both for workforce development customers and staff. One of our most highly-attended trainings of 2023, our Introduction to Trauma and Healing-Centered Workforce Development webinar for the U.S. Department of Labor, had over 2,200 attendees–three times USDOL’s normal webinar audience. The webinar received an overall satisfaction score of 94%; 98% of participants stated they would recommend the event to a colleague, and 88% believed they could use what they learned in their job.