Unemployment in the Great Lakes region is the highest in recent history. More and more people are flooding through the doors of community colleges and training institutions as workers return to school to upgrade their skills.

The Joyce-funded Shifting Gears initiative is a state policy reform effort designed to drive effective and efficient solutions serving this growing population.

A new component in this strategy is a recently launched Web site: www.shifting-gears.org. With a grant from the Joyce Foundation, The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) developed this technological tool to help six states—Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin—address their skills gaps and attract 21st Century jobs to the region.

To better assist states in meeting the needs of modern day employers, www.shifting-gears.org acts as a clearinghouse on state policy reform for practitioners and officials working to align adult education, workforce development and postsecondary education programs. The online tool gives them immediate access to national resources, sources of state-by-state information on key policies, and examples of innovative state policies that help workers gain skills required for family-supporting jobs.

"Our aim is for this Web site to give states tools to change policies in ways that ensure every worker has the opportunity to acquire the skills and credentials to succeed in a challenging economy,” said Julie Strawn, senior policy analyst at CLASP."

The Web site’s rich resource center helps states learn how state policies can:

• Connect basic skills and English language services more closely to college and careers so that these services are more effective in helping adults.
• Make financial aid and other funding supports more accessible to working adults.
• Develop career pathways that help link education and work in occupations and industries important to the state’s economic future and help new and existing workers enter and advance in specific fields.
• Use data to guide and drive needed policy change.

"This is about jobs," stated Whitney Smith, employment program manager for the Joyce Foundation. "It’s about increasing access to skills that pay off in the marketplace for low-income workers and local businesses. It’s also about working collaboratively with state leaders to develop policies that fill the labor pipeline with a skilled and educated workforce. This kind of systemic change is necessary to ensure the future economic prosperity of the Great Lakes region."

Launched three years ago, Shifting Gears is a multi-million dollar initiative helping Midwestern states reengineer adult education, workforce development and postsecondary education policies to support economic growth and expand job opportunities for low-skilled workers in the region.

Find out more about employment programs funded by the Joyce Foundation by clicking here.