Shifting Gears E-Newsletter (6/27/2010)
State Updates and Policy Insights on Improving Workforce Education and Training.

 

Joyce Funded Report: 'Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers' (4/07/2010)
Investigative report of low-wage worker abuse in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York.

 

The Shifting Gears Approach to Systems Change (1/14/2010)
This new report provides an overview of the Shifting Gears approach to strengthening state postsecondary, adult basic education, and skills-development systems in the Great Lakes region.

 

Strengthening State Policies for Working Families (11/05/2009)
New report released by The Working Poor Families Project

 

Transitional Jobs Reentry Demonstration Project (7/22/2009)
An Evaluation of Employment Programs for Former Prisoners

 

The Future of Middle-Skill Jobs (4/03/2009)
The Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution hosted an event and released a policy brief analyzing the demand for middle-skill jobs and their potential for helping disadvantaged workers move up the income ladder.

 

The Workforce Alliance’s Skills2Compete campaign (4/03/2009)
In 2007, the Workforce Alliance launched the Skills2Compete campaign to introduce a new vision for a two-year skills guarantee for all American workers.

 

National Nonprofits Call on Governors and State Legislators to Target Recovery Act Investments to those Most in Need (4/02/2009)
The Joyce-funded Working Poor Families Project developed a set of Principles for State Implementation of federal Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding that has been endorsed by 20 prominent advocacy and research groups.

 

New Web Site Helps States Working to Boost Economic Competitiveness (4/01/2009)
The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) announces the launch of a new Web site to help states increase the number of low-income working adults who have the skills and credentials they need to compete for 21st Century jobs.

 

Extensive Economic Hardships for Working Families in Michigan (8/09/2007)
A new series reviews workforce, employment, adult education, and economic development policies and how well they are serving the increasing number of working families living in poverty in Michigan.

 

Welfare to Work: What Have We Learned? (6/19/2007)
Major Report on Welfare-to-Work Reveals That Midwest Welfare Families Have Gone to Work But Most Remain Poor

 

The Future of the Great Lakes Economy: A Federal-State Compact and Opportunity (6/16/2007)
Brookings Institute's Metropolitan Policy Program will first host the first in a series of forums to highlight ways the federal government can help bolster the economic assets of the Great Lakes Region.

 

Vital Signs (5/09/2007)
Can the Great Lakes economy be revitalized by venture capital, enlightened employment policy, high-speed rail, and collaboration with our friends to the north?

 

Shifting Gears (2/01/2007)
Low-skilled residents, high-skilled jobs: that mismatch threatens our economic future. Adult education geared to employers’ and workers’ needs could move everyone forward.

 

Region Must Bolster Schools, Protect Lakes for 21st Century Competitiveness (10/01/2006)
The Great Lakes region has an aging workforce, a heavy reliance on mature industries and products, and a skills gap that keeps its residents from filling many of the best new-economy jobs. But a new report from the Brookings Institution outlines steps that could vault the region forward and help it reassert its economic leadership in the nation and the world.

 

It's time for next step in welfare reform (8/25/2006)
Joyce President Ellen S. Alberding writes about the next steps of welfare reform, ten years after Congress passed and President Clinton signed landmark legislation to “end welfare as we know it.”

 

Welfare Applicants Face Major Employment Challenges (5/01/2006)
The percentage of Milwaukee welfare applicants who were employed in any year declined steadily after peaking in 1999, according to a study from Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago and the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin. Mental health problems, disabilities, substance abuse, and education deficits posed serious barriers to employment and compromised applicants' ability to be effective parents.

 

More Investment Needed to Improve Chicago's Workforce (9/01/2005)
A report by the Chicago Jobs Council says the future of Chicago's economy depends on investing in services that help people develop job skills. But despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent on workforce development, certain populations are falling through the cracks.

 

Working Poor Continue to Struggle Despite Successes of Welfare Reform (5/01/2005)
Welfare caseloads nationwide have declined by 55 percent since the federal government created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to replace Aid to Families with Dependent Children in 1996. In Illinois the results have been even better, with welfare rolls reduced by 80 percent. The current law ended the guarantee of assistance for poor families, set work requirements and placed a five-year limit on benefits.

 

Poverty Increased as Economy Improved (12/01/2004)
Even as an economic boom became a symbol for the decade, the percentage of Chicago-area families who were working while living in poverty increased during the 1990s.

 

Healthcare, Childcare Key to Job Stability for Low-Income Moms (11/01/2004)
Low-income mothers are much more likely to stay employed if their jobs provide childcare and health insurance, a new report from the Institute for Women's Policy Research shows.

 

Brookings Discussion Focuses on Welfare Bill (8/01/2004)
When Congress passed and President Clinton signed the welfare reform law in 1996, it gave the states power to reshape their policies with the goal of moving people off welfare and into the workforce. The 1996 law ended the guarantee of assistance for poor families, set work requirements and placed a five-year limit on benefits. It also created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to replace Aid to Families with Dependent Children.