This is a profile of Charm City Run, a Baltimore-area running and walking specialty store, as part of the Good Companies/Good Jobs initaitive research.

In April 2015, the Aspen Institute Workforce Strategies Initiative jointly launched the Communities that Work Partnership with the US Economic Development Administration. The purpose of this initiative was to document and accelerate the development of employer-led regional workforce initiatives across the country. Seven competitively-selected sites — in Arizona, California, the District of Columbia, Georgia, New York (upstate and NYC), and Texas — participated in a learning exchange focused on bridging economic and workforce development to strengthen local talent pipelines and improve access to quality employment.

The “on-demand” or “1099” economy is reengineering how millions of Americans work, and California’s San Francisco Bay Area is at the forefront of these changes. Four members of the Bay Area team participating in the Communities that Work Partnership (CTWP) set out to understand this challenge and explore how the public workforce development system—the one-stop job centers, community colleges, and publicly funded community-based training programs—could meet the skills/needs of freelancers, and the businesses that hire them, in the region’s 1099 economy.

By 2050, the number of Americans needing long-term care services and supports will double. They will have more acute and complex care needs than previous generations, and they will be more likely to receive care at home or in a residential setting than in an institution. These factors are driving the increased demand for workers providing home care services and for better training. One of the biggest workforce challenges we face as a country is how to meet the growing demands for such a critical workforce. One model has emerged in Washington State: The SEIU Healthcare NW Training Partnership. Founded in 2007, this nonprofit school is the nation’s largest training provider for workers in home care. The Training Partnership has created a statewide training system with comprehensive resources and tools to support home care workers, consumers and employers. This case study provides an overview of the Training Partnership and its history, offerings—-including the nation’s first Registered Apprenticeship program for home care workers—-and outcomes. It also summarizes the model’s strengths and challenges. The development of this case study was generously supported by SkillUp Washington and the Ford Foundation.

In this brief, we provide an overview of work in the direct-care industry and profile PHI (Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute), an organization dedicated to improving job quality in the industry. Our goal is to offer information to those involved in workforce development about the challenges of work in the direct-care industry and the strategies PHI uses to promote job quality improvements.

This report details the state of low-wage work in the restaurant industry and provides a profile of Restaurant Opportunities Center-United, an organization striving to empower low-wage restaurant workers, employers, and consumers to collectively improve job quality in the industry.

This report details the dynamics and challenges of the residential construction industry and provides a profile of the Workers Defense Project, a non-profit and membership-based organization based in Austin, Texas that seeks to provide low-wage workers, particularly those in the construction industry, with resources to improve their working and living conditions

This report illustrates the state of low-wage work in the retail industry and provides a profile of the Retail Action Project, an organization striving to improve job quality in retail.

This publication highlights a business value assessment of a work-based learning project (WBL) conducted at Temple University Hospital-Episcopal Campus. The training, designed and delivered by District 1199C Training and Upgrading Fund in partnership with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, provided training to 21 mental health workers at the hospital from 2008 to 2009. In this paper, WSI describes the training model and discusses the value of the training to the hospital and employees. Research was based on qualitative and quantitative data collected before, during, and after the WBL project was implemented. The publication also highlights the business value assessment research methodology and the challenges and opportunities addressed in carrying out this type of evaluation. Both the work-based learning program and this research were funded through Jobs to Careers: Promoting Work-Based Learning for Quality Care. Jobs to Careers is an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in collaboration with The Hitachi Foundation and U.S. Department of Labor.

This guide explores worker cooperative networks as a neighborhood, municipal and regional strategy for generating wealth. Drawing from two cases, the authors put forth a framework for building a scalable cooperative network in post-industrial American cities. This guide may be useful to practitioners learning about cooperative business models or exploring strategies to spread worker ownership.