Role for Work-Force Groups in Helping New Workers Achieve Economic Security

Unrealized Gains: How Workforce Organizations Can Put Money Back in the Pockets of Low-Wage Workers, by Mae Watson Grote, asserts that job-training organizations can play a role in helping new workers meet their financial needs. The report profiles three work-force groups—Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation, in New York, the Cara Program, in Chicago, and Maine Centers for Women, Work, and Community, in Augusta—and shows how their programs benefit clients even after they have found jobs. Drawing on those models and on the stories of new workers, the report offers practical advice on how other work-force groups can teach money management; help people get child-care assistance, food stamps, and other benefits that will help them stay on the job; and engage in advocacy work to push for policies that close the gap between what low-income workers receive and what they need.

Publisher: Public/Private Ventures, 2000 Market Street, Suite 600, Philadelphia, Pa. 19103; (215) 557-4400; fax (215) 557-4469; http://www.ppv.org; 51 pages; $10 or free for download on the publisher’s Web site.