An initiative of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, the Greater Washington Workforce Development Collaborative is a coalition of philanthropic and business investors who pool their resources to build a stronger workforce development system for the Metropolitan Washington region. The goal of the Collaborative is to help low-income workers increase their skills so they can improve their wages and career prospects.  

The Collaborative invests in a variety of job training, policy advocacy, and capacity building initiatives each year. Since it was established in late 2007, the Collaborative has raised more than $2.9 million and helped to leverage more than $11 million in federal funds for the region.

Among the Collaborative’s most recent accomplishments:

• The Gray administration and DC Council have enthusiastically responded to recommendations issued in two Collaborative-sponsored policy briefs, Transforming Workforce Development in the District: Building a Strong Leadership Structure and Contributing to an Economic Opportunity Agenda and Reforming First Source: Strengthening the Link Between Economic Development and Jobs. Most recently, the latter brief helped lead to the passage of the Workforce Intermediary Establishment and Reform of First Source Amendment Act of 2011. A third brief, entitled Beyond Good Intentions: Using Data to Promote Economic Activity, which calls for a more data-driven workforce system was released February 2012.
• The Collaborative recently partnered with two of our job training grantees, the Community Services Agency of the Metropolitan Washington AFL-CIO and Wider Opportunities for Women, to pursue and secure an $875,725 grant from the US Department of Labor. These funds are being used to train low-income adults for jobs in green construction. Eight graduates of the Fall 2011 pilot cohort have already secured living wage, union jobs through the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
• Seventy-four entry-level (e.g., housekeeping, food service) hospital employees in Montgomery County, Maryland enrolled in a new Collaborative-sponsored career advancement program in 2011. The “Career Navigators” initiative is helping workers at Holy Cross, Montgomery General, and Suburban hospitals to improve their literacy, prepare for college, set career goals, and pursue post-secondary education leading to healthcare credentials.
• In Fall 2011, the Collaborative expanded its advocacy efforts to Maryland and Virginia with new grants to the Maryland Job Opportunities Task Force and The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis. Both organizations are hiring new staff who will partner with local workforce providers to increase awareness of workforce development issues in Richmond and Annapolis. 
•  In January 2012, the DC Fiscal Policy Institute published a “resource map” of workforce development services in the District of Columbia with support from the Collaborative. This project, a culmination of nearly two years of effort, created a matrix that shows how the District spends its resources on services to help residents get and retain jobs. The report has received extensive praise and was a key topic of discussion following a presentation at the January 2012 DC Workforce Investment Council meeting.

The work of the Collaborative is made possible through the generous support of our members:

To learn more about the Greater Washington Workforce Development Collaborative, please contact Sarah Oldmixon, Director, Workforce Initiatives, at either soldmixon@cfncr.org or (202) 973-2519.