Now in its eighth year, Seattle Jobs Initiative continues to place low-income job seekers in living wage careers
Seattle, WA – The path to a living wage career is not always a straight line. The ability to speak English, lack of job skills, drug and alcohol issues, transportation, and childcare needs are just a few of the barriers experienced by many local residents. A nonprofit organization called Seattle Jobs Initiative (SJI) was established in 1997 to help surmount these obstacles. SJI offers an innovative solution that has proven itself for more than 4,200 residents.
SJI’s formula is comprehensive, and unique in the workforce development arena. By partnering with community-based organizations (CBOs), community colleges, employers and policymakers, SJI links Seattle’s low-income and low-skilled residents to jobs – jobs that pay living wages, offer room for advancement, and include necessary work supports such as health coverage, sick leave and paid vacation. SJI holds a dual goal of finding better jobs for low-income/low-skilled residents and to provide more qualified workers to local employers, and the organization boasts a high retention rate of 60% after one year. Job readiness training, skills training, employer connections and support services (during and after placement) are just a few of the ways SJI ensures success.
“Seattle’s low-income residents often need more than training,” says Rhonda Simmons, Executive Director of SJI. “That’s why we partner with other agencies to offer our participants subsidized transportation, childcare, and housing resources – all designed to help ensure long term stability.”
During the last 8 years, SJI has learned that providing short-term training in growing industries is also essential for individuals to move beyond minimum wage jobs. This knowledge fuels SJI’s policy team, which continually evaluates the labor market and works to improve outcomes for participants and other Washington workers. SJI recently released its first policy report: Beyond the Bottom Line: Expanding Economic Opportunities for Washington’s Working Families, which identifies solutions to support low-income working families. One of the report’s key findings – the need for increased funding and easier access to education – reinforced SJI’s program objectives. With this in mind, a primary focus of the policy team in 2005 is to advocate for restructuring the current financial aid system to benefit low-income, working adults.
More about Seattle Jobs Initiative
SJI was established in 1997 under the City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development (OED). In the 1990s, the City of Seattle made specific efforts to link economic development and workforce development to benefit low income communities and communities of color. When Seattle was selected by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) in 1995 as a grant recipient under its Jobs Initiative program, a partnership between AECF and OED was created to provide job training, employer connections, and support services to low-income residents. This partnership evolved into SJI.
In January 2003, SJI spun off from the city and established itself as an independent nonprofit organization. SJI continues to creatively align the many stakeholders involved in the local workforce development arena to improve services and results for low-income residents.
Contact Information
Krista Kenner
Seattle Jobs Initiative
(206) 628-6988
kkenner@seattlejobsinitiative.com
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