The three phases of Workforce Communities of Action include:
Local and state workforce development boards were invited to apply for Workforce Communities of Action in late April 2023. They were asked to identify a complex workforce challenge impacting their community and respond to a series of questions identifying their readiness and ability to participate in the WCA experience. They were also asked to identify which of the following future-focused behaviors they felt would be most impactful in addressing their challenge:
These four behaviors have helped shape JFF’s Workforce Transformation Strategy. Through extensive research conducted from 2018 to 2020, these behaviors were found to be shared across many of the nation’s leading workforce development boards.
After careful review of all applications, 20 communities were selected to advance to the next phase: Ideation.
Over the course of six months, the communities will spend roughly 16 hours participating in a series of virtual discovery and design sessions with their peers. Each participant's experience will be thoughtfully curated by JFF and CivicMakers based on information submitted through the application process to ensure a valuable and productive experience for all selected organizations.
Participants will closely analyze their challenge and develop a detailed problem statement that examines the “who,” “what,” and “why,” of their challenge and provides supporting evidence, discusses its potential impact, and introduces a hypothesis and a proposed plan to test this hypothesis. These questions will be explored through a focused and collaborative process facilitated by CivicMakers. Along the way, teams will have the opportunity to learn from consultants and advisors who can lend insight to design best practices, implementation models, and cutting-edge approaches being explored across the country. These experts will be carefully selected by JFF based on alignment of their knowledge and background to the needs of participating communities.
This process is intended to provide workforce professionals with the mindset, strategies, processes, and tools needed to thoughtfully and thoroughly examine localized issues while applying an equity lens and human-centered design principles.
At the close of the design and discovery sessions, JFF and our team of workforce advisors will identify four communities to receive $10,000 to advance their action plans from concept to proposal as part of Phase 3: Activation.
Teams selected for the Activation phase will have successfully developed an action plan that demonstrates the following:
- A creative, bold, and equitable approach to identifying or addressing the participant's challenge
- Identifies key stakeholders and critical partners necessary to further investigating or addressing the challenge and the roles these stakeholder and partners must play
- A clear plan for engaging with and centering the community in future investigative or implementation activities.
- Identifies necessary resources, assets, and capacities needed for taking the next step in investigating or addressing the challenge
- A clear set of goals objectives for the next stage of the participant's work
Four selected communities will receive $10,000 in seed funding and will work closely with JFF and workforce advisors to continue identifying critical next steps that lead to action and change. Next steps may include additional required research, capacity building, planning, or in some cases, implementation of a fully developed concept proposal.
Prior to the conclusion of the project period, JFF will work with finalists to identify a list of potential philanthropic funders that may be interested in supporting the project. It is JFF’s hope that the $10,000 in seed funding will be used to support ongoing efforts to secure additional funding needed to implement new ideas, innovative approaches, and bold ideas—though specific plans for taking those steps won’t be a requirement for receiving the seed funding.
