At STRIVE, the Pathway to Possible begins with the promise of change. When we launched our groundbreaking workforce development and career solution over 40 years ago, a small group of visionaries focused on the changes they wanted to see locally. Now, after helping 85,000 people (and counting) realize their educational, career, and life pursuits across the country, we know change is essential in creating mobility and financial empowerment in our communities and is the key to building resilience for ready-to-work individuals and employers.
While our impact here at STRIVE has been consistently increasing, the same is not true for some of our national workforce statistics. This week, as the 20th annual Workforce Development Month comes to a close, I’m thinking about some of those statistics and what we can do to change them. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers who have less than a high school diploma have the highest unemployment rate and lowest median earnings. There remains a large and growing gap in economic outcomes tied to education and skills. To reduce inequality and advance mobility, we know- and our model proves- that American businesses and community leaders need to keep investing in scalable pathways to job growth and economic success that address structural barriers, stability, and access into new and growing fields.
We need programs and pathways that enable more American workers to upskill or reskill into higher-paying roles. It's what we’ve been committed to doing here at STRIVE, and it’s what we see our partners investing in, too. And it’s exactly why we’ve decided to launch a series to bring champions of changemaking workforce solutions together for dialogue and action.
Powering Progress, our new thought leadership platform, spotlights the workforce issues that matter now, with the solutions-driven innovators advancing them in real and meaningful ways today. From decreased federal funding to changing labor market needs, we know the workforce and employers face unprecedented headwinds. With Powering Progress, we will dig into these changes with the people who have moved to close critical gaps in workforces and support the long-term economic prosperity of communities across the country.
Our launch event, A Conversation with Changemakers in Workforce Development, on October 22nd brings together four influential leaders who are not afraid to lead the change in workforce solutions: Brian Aquart, Vice President of Workforce and Community Education at Northwell Health; Lynette Bell, President of Truist Foundation; Nichol King, Executive Director of Community Banking at JPMorganChase; and Marc Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League. Join us as we discuss their unique approaches to skills and career training that create opportunities for individuals and resilient businesses.
As we prepare for this first event, we are already looking ahead to the future of this series, and to continuing critical conversations with Powering Progress: a space for creative solutions in workforce development that will inspire action, forge resilience in moments of change, and develop new changemakers in the field and beyond.
About STRIVE
STRIVE is a national workforce development solution for people ready and motivated for a new start. We offer tuition-free skills and job-readiness training, one-on-one support and lifetime personal coaching. We create partnerships with employers that result in pathways to life-changing careers while helping employers close critical gaps in their workforce.