2024 proved to be another successful and fulfilling year for us here at Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW). Following the pattern of previous years, CSW directly managed more than 50 unique projects among our five strategy teams. CSW built upon the staff growth in 2023 with the addition of two new Senior Policy Associates: Amanda Gerrie on the Federal, State, & Local Systems Change team; and Jessica Carr on the Improving Practices & Outcomes team. Additionally, we welcomed Amanda Winters from the National Governor’s Association, and Molly Ellenberg Friedland from InStride, to our Board of Directors.
Throughout the implementation of a number of anti-DEI policies and legislative actions, CSW remained committed to our support of people of color and others historically excluded from success. We also developed our first Inclusive Language Guide, providing staff with historical context and guidance on language usage which is person-centered and culturally responsive.
CSW aims to be considered a great place to work, and to that end we implement an annual Gallup Poll to inform our leadership of the opinions and needs of staff. In 2024, we maintained high Gallup Poll results, with 95% of staff stating they are satisfied with CSW as a place to work. The poll also showcased particularly high marks among the following prompts:
- My manager, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person
- The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important
- My coworkers are committed to doing quality work
Additionally, our Gallup Poll results saw increases in positive responses over previous years in the following prompts:
- I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right
- I have a best friend at work
- In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress
We are privileged to have an incredibly competent, quality group of staff dedicated to supporting each other and our mission. That’s why we want to take a moment to highlight some of the fantastic work our team produced over the course of 2024. Among the many projects we managed, we’ve curated a selection which highlight some of our new and notable achievements from the year:
Competencies & Credentials
Our Competencies & Credentials team manages work which advances the use of competencies and incremental credentials leading to a fairer education and workforce ecosystem. We believe this work will lead to improved recognition of skills, more equitable job descriptions, streamlined learning pathways, and more aligned educational program design.
ACE-UP College & Employer Partnership Action Guide
Funding provided by Lumina Foundation
CSW, with the support of Lumina Foundation, launched the Advancing Community Equity and Upward Mobility (ACE-UP) initiative in 2023. ACE-UP brings together colleges and their industry partners to form a Community of Practice—a network designed to identify and implement effective strategies that address equity gaps and increase economic mobility. To extend the benefits of ACE-UP beyond its immediate members, CSW has published the ACE-UP College & Employer Partnership Action Guide. This comprehensive resource serves as a playbook for colleges and their industry partners, offering research, case studies, and practical tools to advance equity efforts in their communities.
Related Publications:
- ACE-UP College & Employer Partnership Action Guide Blog
- College & Employer Partnership Action Guide
- Community Colleges Continue Their Commitment to Advancing Equity
- Supporting Community College Learners Holistically and Equitably
- College & Employer Partnership Action Guide Webinar Recording
Strategically Messaging Equity as a Postsecondary & Workforce Imperative
Funding provided by The Annie E. Casey Foundation
CSW conducted research exploring how colleges and their partners use messaging as a strategic tool to advance equity, especially racial equity, while navigating the current diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI) climate in the U.S. This research aligns with CSW’s values on racial equity and inclusion, including our belief that reducing educational and labor market disparities for people of color is an economic and social imperative. The research resulted in a report which highlights how colleges use messaging as a lever to advance equity, particularly racial equity, through their partnerships with industry, employers, community organizations, federal and state funders (“public funders”), philanthropy (“private funders”), and within their campus communities.
Related Publications:
- Equity Messaging Strategies for a Changing DEI Landscape Webinar Recording
- Strategically Messaging Equity as a Postsecondary & Workforce Imperative Blog
Strengthening Workforce Development Programs by Implementing a Credit for Prior Learning Framework
Funding provided by Southwest Oregon Community College
Southwestern Oregon Community College (SWOCC) engaged CSW to enhance workforce development outcomes by implementing a Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) framework. This initiative was designed to attract and support local adult learners by awarding credit for non-academic learning and experience and providing those learners with pathways to new careers. SWOCC also hoped to boost SWOCC enrollment and prepare a worker pipeline for local industries including manufacturing, healthcare, and hospitality. Through competency evaluations, gap analyses, and curriculum mapping, the project provided SWOCC faculty with tools leading to the recognition of prior learning. The result of the work was a process and methodology for awarding credit for workforce programs and a Credit for Prior Learning Implementation Framework.
Federal, State, & Local Systems Change
CSW’s Federal, State & Local Systems Change team transforms multi-level workforce systems, policies, and practice to reduce poverty, increase economic mobility for low-wage workers, and address racial disparities.
Improving Workforce Systems for Youth and Young Adults
Funding provided by The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
Partnering with State of California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA)
This year, CSW partnered with the State of California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) and The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to improve employment and career outcomes for young Californians – including opportunity youth – through a comprehensive systems change approach. This work has focused on aligning strategies and services in the State with the goal of improving outcomes for the State’s young people. CSW employs a targeted equity focus, ensuring that this work actively addresses systemic barriers and prioritizes quality jobs and education. CSW is providing technical assistance, research, facilitation, and guidance to the LWDA, culminating in a co-designed strategy to create a youth-responsive, future-facing, and impact-driven workforce development system for youth and young adults in California.
Related Publications:
Regional Equity Recovery Partnership Evaluation (RERP)
Funding provided by the California Workforce Development Board
In 2024, CSW completed the first phase of our evaluation of the Regional Equity Recovery Partnership Evaluation (RERP), an approximately $24M grant initiative overseen by the California Workforce Development Board. By focusing on building strong collaboration between the state’s workforce development boards and community colleges, this initiative is designed to improve employment outcomes for underrepresented or disconnected populations and those affected by economic downturns. RERP’s strategies are tailored to enhance job quality and accessibility and to meet the skill requirements of employers while addressing broader economic, social, and environmental needs in local communities. The first phase of the evaluation has focused on learning from the unique partnership between workforce development and community colleges, surfacing critical attributes and conditions for success.
Related Publications:
Michigan Statewide Workforce Plan
Funding provided by Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity through Michigan College Access Network
CSW supported the development of the first-ever Michigan Statewide Workforce Plan, announced in 2024. This collaborative process brought over 40 state agencies, workforce boards, community organizations, labor, and business leaders together to create a roadmap for economic prosperity. Focusing on training workers, growing the middle-class and powering Michigan’s business and entrepreneurial ecosystem, this plan is a comprehensive, integrated model to build the workforce for the future.
Related publications:
Improving Practices & Outcomes
The Improving Practices & Outcomes Team works with workforce organizations and professionals across the country to strengthen their capacity to improve outcomes for both job seekers and employers–and ensure their participants have the skills and tools needed to achieve economic mobility.
A Leader’s Strategic Playbook for Goodwill Enterprises
Funding provided by Goodwill Industries International, Inc.
CSW provided strategic guidance and technical writing services for Goodwill Industries International, Inc. to develop a playbook that would support local Goodwill organization mission leaders in workforce development services. The resulting 244-page Playbook includes CSW resources and assets, newly developed strategic content and tools, and best practices from Goodwill member enterprises. Chapter topics include defining, staffing, resourcing, accelerating, and assessing the impact of your mission strategy. This foundational document creates a standardized framework that establishes best practices in workforce development programming engagement and mission services among its vast membership.
Co-creating Philadelphia’s Shared Workforce Metrics Framework
Funding provided by The Pew Charitable Trust and Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development, City of Philadelphia
CSW designed and facilitated an inclusive process to develop a framework of shared, baseline workforce program metrics and definitions. Over the course of five working sessions and informed by eight constituent focus groups, the Workforce Professionals Alliance (WPA) crafted a workforce program framework with six descriptive metrics and fourteen program metrics—each with an agreed-upon definition. Initially, the group will use this framework to assess current data collection practices and address data capacity gaps. This shared framework is a foundational step toward alignment, enabling organizations to assess strengths, identify growth opportunities, and collaborate strategically. By unifying data points, the WPA can make workforce development efforts more intentional, impactful, and resource-efficient.
WBN NYC Cohort
Funding provided by The Pinkerton Foundation
Partnering with the New York City Employment and Training Coalition (NYCETC)
In 2024, CSW launched a Workforce Benchmarking Network (WBN) cohort in New York City while concluding multi-year benchmarking cohorts in Dallas-Fort Worth and Detroit. WBN cohorts brings workforce service providers together from a specific region to deepen the use and understanding of program data to gather programmatic insights and improve participant outcomes. These cohorts foster a “data mindset,” equipping providers with the skills and tools to go beyond mandated program measures, enabling them to assess their impact more comprehensively and make data-driven improvements to programs and policies. Participating organizations are then able to understand what success looks like for their participants while contextualizing outcomes within the broader workforce system.
Related Publications:
- Workforce Benchmarking Network Cohorts
- Second WBN NYC Cohort Announced – Launching January 2025
- 2025 Workforce Benchmarking Network (WBN) New York City Cohort FAQ
- Workforce Program Success Drivers Toolkit
Worker-Centered Benchmarking Project
Funding provided by The Annie E. Casey Foundation
Existing workforce program metrics focus primarily on employment status and earnings, but do not consider holistic metrics like housing status, wellness, feelings of hope, or self-esteem. The Worker-Centered Benchmarking Project (WCBP) aims to provide practitioners, funders, and policymakers with a human-centered framework to consider success, measure impact, and design services to reflect what communities want and need. CSW organized an advisory council of six workers/learners from across the country to rethink how workforce program success is measured and the metrics used to do so. The advisory council’s final report, Make Decisions with Us Not About Us, identifies six suggested metrics workforce programs can implement, along with five additional recommendations on creating better workforce metrics. This report has also been integrated into the 2025 Aspen Workforce Leadership Academy curriculum.
Related Publications:
- Initial Learnings from the Worker-Centered Benchmarking Project
- Trust is Key: Lessons and Insights from the Worker-Centered Benchmarking Project (WCBP)
- Worker-Centered Benchmarking Project Research & Recommendations Slide Deck
- Make Decisions With Us, Not About Us: Findings and Recommendations from the Worker-Centered Benchmarking Project
Research & Evaluation
CSW’s Research & Evaluation team provides access to data and findings on outcomes and best practices essential to help workforce development leaders, practitioners, and educators make better decisions about how to serve customers, invest limited resources, expand on their strengths, and identify and reduce existing disparities.
Partnering Economic & Employment Research (PEER) Academy
Funding provided by Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation and Ballmer Group
Partnering with the New York Association of Training and Employment Professionals (NYATEP)
In 2024, CSW and NYATEP launched an inaugural labor market information academy titled the Partnering Economic & Employment Research (PEER) Academy. In this first cohort, 16 workforce and economic development professionals were selected from a diverse range of Southeast Michigan and Western New York nonprofit organizations, institutes of higher education, and public agencies. Academy fellows will participate in a 9-month series of retreats and workshops. During the cohort, fellows will receive lessons on how to collect and use LMI data as well as see examples of other providers using data to better guide program development, industry recruitment and engagement, and to help residents make better choices about available jobs, workforce education and training programs, and career pathways. Additionally, fellows will learn strategies for using data to support local planning, continuous improvement, and innovation efforts and to achieve better and more equitable outcomes for workers, learners, employers, and communities.
Related Publications:
- PEER Academy, a Labor Market Information (LMI) Training Cohort, Announced
- PEER Academy Cohort Participants Announced
- CSW Releases Workforce Development Data Toolkit
Evaluation of the Build Better Careers Initiative Sites 1 and 2 (Charlotte, NC and Memphis, TN)
Funding provided by Truist Foundation and Strada Education Foundation
Partnering with CAEL (Council for Adult and Experiential Learning)
CSW is the evaluator for two sites of the multi-year, multi-regional “Build Better Careers Initiative,” funded by Truist Foundation. This initiative is focused on creating education-to-career pathways in the financial services industry for women and BIPOC residents. In 2024, CSW continued to leverage its evaluation capacity as well as long-standing workforce development, career pathways, and industry sector partnerships history and experience to support CAEL in documenting the learning tied to this important initiative.
LISC SNAP E&T Partnership Grant Evaluation
Funding provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Partnering with Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)
Over the past three years, CSW has provided grant evaluation services for LISC’s USDA-funded evaluation of their SNAP E&T Partnership Grant. Through this work, LISC is building expertise and capacity across its national network of 100-plus Financial Opportunity Centers and partner organizations to become SNAP E&T third-party providers. In 2024, CSW continued to support LISC with understanding the impact and sustainability of their efforts through this grant, through documenting and reporting final data collected to support the summative evaluation.
Trauma & Resilience at Work
The CSW Trauma and Resilience at Work (T&R) team advances workplaces and workforces that are culturally responsive, trauma-informed, healing-centered, resilience-building, and supportive of mental well-being. We do this work in the context of advancing worker success, racial equity and inclusion, job quality, economic mobility, and fair and safe workplaces.
Trauma-Informed and Resilience-Building Detroit at Work
Funding provided by Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation (DESC)
The Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation (DESC) contracted with CSW to provide a third year of Trauma-Informed and Resilience-Building (T&R) assessment, training and coaching for nine adult career centers and six youth-serving organizations. The purpose of the project was to expand the capacity of centers to implement trauma-informed, resilience-building, and healing-centered approaches within the work processes and policies at each center. DESC has hired CSW for a fourth year to continue and deepen trauma, healing, and resilience-building activities. In year four, we will conduct train-the-trainer sessions to train the ambassadors on conducting the trainings themselves. This will help ensure sustainability of trauma-informed, healing-centered, and resilience-building approaches in the Detroit at Work public workforce development system.
Related publications:
- CSW’s Trauma & Resilience Team Begins Third Year of Work in Detroit
- CSW Announces Fourth Year of Trauma-Informed Training with Detroit at Work System
- An Introduction to Trauma-Informed Research
- Trauma & Resilience Quick Guides: Turning Knowledge into Action
Michigan NEAR Trauma-Informed Ambassador Program
Funding provided by the Michigan Public Health Institute
Partnering with Michigan NEAR Collaborative
CSW is partnering with the Michigan NEAR Collaborative to provide training and coaching through the Trauma-Informed Ambassador program. This program will help units within the state system in advancing through the Trauma Informed State Systems Map. This project includes training sessions to deepen content knowledge, action labs to practice behavior change, and coaching/office hours to develop and implement an action plan to cultivate more trauma-informed, responsive, and resilience-building workplace cultures, programs, and services.
Related Publications:
- Trauma & Resilience Ambassadors Create Thriving Workplaces
- Racial Trauma & Mental Health for People of Color in the Workplace
- Reclaiming the Term “Resilience”
From Crisis to Resilience: Addressing Trauma and Toxic Stress in Workforce Development and Education Systems
Funding provided by Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW)
Partnering with InsideTrack
CSW and InsideTrack partnered to write a white paper, From Crisis to Resilience: Addressing Trauma and Toxic Stress in Workforce Development and Education Systems. The white paper draws from CSW’s extensive research on trauma-informed approaches to workforce development; InsideTrack’s practical experience training and certifying organizational staff in a trauma-informed, healing-centered support methodology; and partner organizations’ frontline experiences addressing the challenges faced by students/staff and implementing trauma-informed frameworks. It also defines the extent of the challenge of trauma and toxic stress facing workforce/education participants and staff, and helps to equip leaders and practitioners with holistic, healing-centered approaches to supporting the individuals they serve.
Related Publications:
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