The Deaconess Foundation team is often learning about the inspiring work of many 
valuable organizations in greater Cleveland. When I say “inspiring”, that’s shorthand for so many other adjectives: productive, creative, responsive, inclusive, hard, impactful, and strategic, to name a few.
With the new year, we now think it is time for us to play a larger role in telling the community about this work. And this comes along at a good time more broadly, because we anticipate many changes in workforce policies, funding, and programs coming from our Federal and State public sector partners, along with a Mayoral race in Cleveland. There’s lots to talk about this year!
So, with this blog, we open up a few new marketing channels to tell the stories that need telling, report the data that needs reporting, and share news that needs hearing.
- Check here for regular updates to our blog (and let me know if you’d like to be a guest blogger)
- Sign up for our monthly emails
- Follow up on Twitter @deaconessfound1 or look up #betterworkforce
- See new pages on our website, including this page, which will highlight new reports, photos, videos, and other content
While telling these stories is a new focus, what’s not new is our commitment to helping people build careers that sustain them and their families.
To that end, here’s one inspiring program doing just this. MAGNET and GCP (@GCPartnership) recently launched its program, ACCESS to Manufacturing Careers. With cohorts available for both young adults and re-entering citizens (people with a background in the criminal justice system), this program starts by understanding the jobs needs of 20 employers (almost 10% of manufacturing employers in greater #CLE) and then coordinates 20 education and service partners to train individuals for just those jobs.
Results? So far,
- 22 people have earned new jobs (80% of whom are individuals identifying as Black or Latinx)
- 15 employers have gone through Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training to build understanding and skills
These numbers are projected to dramatically increase in 2021. You can learn more about this exciting initiative through this short video.
Inspiring, isn’t it? See you again soon, on this blog or our other new channels. Or reach out to me directly, at cbelk@deaconessfdn.org. Let’s get talking.