New York, New York, February 22, 2024: Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW), with support from the Pinkerton Foundation and in partnership with NYC Employment and Training Coalition (NYCETC), is launching the Workforce Benchmarking Network (WBN) cohort in New York City (NYC). The WBN NYC Cohort is a peer learning community that allows organizations to dive deep into program data to advance equity, improve outcomes, build staff capacity, and better articulate impact to funders. The cohort will provide coaching, peer learning forums, and technical assistance over the course of eight months.
WBN cohorts are a proven mechanism for building staff data acumen, strengthening organizational data culture, and improving and achieving more equitable participant outcomes. Community-based cohorts of providers strengthen members’ internal data culture and program results through a focus on racial equity, utilization of continuous improvement tools, self-assessments, sharing of promising strategies, and individualized technical assistance.
The WBN NYC cohort is an opportunity for up to 15 NYCETC members to participate in monthly activities, exploring how to use qualitative and quantitative data to understand their impact beyond required programs measures. This better equips members to identify gaps and opportunities within their services and to make immediate and long-term strategic changes to their programs.
Laurie Dien, Vice President/Executive Director for Programs at The Pinkerton Foundation stated, “We have great programs in New York City, but we need to help programs collect and analyze useful data to demonstrate what they are doing well and where they need help improving. Using data is a great way of feeding back knowledge into programs to continue making them more effective. Organizations shouldn’t and don’t need to do this alone. One of the best components of benchmarking is the learning networks that are created. Everybody shares their data and delves into it. Providers come together to analyze the data; What’s working, what’s not working? How are you doing this? What can be done better? No one could say, “no that’s not possible.”
Of the project, Travis Reid, Vice President of Operations and Strategy at CSW said, “WBN cohorts have helped more than 130 organizations use data to improve workforce program results. As resources grow tighter, it is more important now than ever to discern with real-time data what is working well, while using data disaggregation to identify who exactly is benefiting, so that limited resources can be used effectively. Leveraging generous funding from The Pinkerton Foundation, CSW is thrilled to continue this work in NYC with our partners at the coalition and their member organizations.”
Gregory J Morris, CEO of the New York City Employment and Training Coalition commented, “As the largest city-based workforce development association in the country, it is incumbent on us to elevate promising practice and to advance initiatives that connect providers to employers with clarity on the skills they are looking for and direct job placement opportunities. As we continue to transition to a post-pandemic workforce and position New Yorkers for opportunities in labor markets/industries that are expanding rapidly and exponentially, we feel an urgency to build on and advance our learning and make the strategic commitments/course corrections needed to demonstrate and maximize value and impact.”
WBN NYC will run from April to November of 2024. Interested organizations can learn more about the cohort at an upcoming informational webinar on Wednesday, February 28 at 12:00 PM ET and by contacting Alex Breen at abreen@skilledwork.org. Organizations that are members of NYCETC are eligible to apply to join the cohort. Interested applicants must attend an informational webinar on February 28, 2024 at 12:00PM ET. Those unable to attend can contact Alex Breen at abreen@skilledwork.org for additional information.
Register for the informational webinar: https://loom.ly/-g4A-oc
About Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW): Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW) is a national workforce policy non-profit that partners with government, business, education, and community leaders to cultivate good jobs and the skilled workers to fill them. Since 1991, CSW has catalyzed change in educational and labor market systems, focusing on scalable improvements in worker skills, job quality, and access to opportunity. CSW provides services across five strategy areas: Competencies & Credentials; Improving Practices & Outcomes; Federal, State, & Local Systems Change; Research & Evaluation; and Trauma & Resilience at Work. CSW advances policies and practices which increase economic mobility, particularly for people of color and others historically excluded from success.
About the Pinkerton Foundation: The Pinkerton Foundation is an independent grantmaking organization established in 1966 by Robert Allan Pinkerton, the Chairman and CEO of Pinkerton’s, Inc., then the nation’s oldest and largest security company. The foundation, which retains no ties to the firm, supports community-based programs for children, youth and families in economically disadvantaged areas in New York City.
About the New York City Employment and Training Coalition (NYCETC): The NYC Employment & Training Coalition (NYCETC) works to ensure that every New Yorker — especially those who have been historically marginalized and disenfranchised and cut off from workforce opportunities — has access to the skills, training, and education needed to thrive in the local economy, and that every business is able to maintain a highly skilled workforce. Our members create jobs and connect underserved New Yorkers — primarily New Yorkers of color, New Yorkers with low- or moderate-incomes, New Yorkers with multiple barriers to employment, and New Yorkers who have been left out of the growing economy due to systemic and historic marginalization — to opportunities so they can support their families and give back to their communities.
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