Helping families and individuals attain a decent standard of living means changing policies to lift people out of low-paying jobs with little promise of a better future.  SJI’s policy work seeks to increase opportunities for low-income job seekers and workers to obtain the skills and knowledge they need to:

• Connect to and succeed in jobs with good wages, benefits and career advancement potential.
• Improve their economic circumstances through employment, work supports, and money management skills.

Our policy work is shaped and strengthened by our work on the ground, which gives us intimate knowledge of what low-income job seekers and employees really need to best prepare them to secure, retain and advance in living wage jobs. 

Policy objectives currently being pursued include:

Identifying Growth Industries & Occupations
SJI uses labor market and industrial sector analysis to identify promising new sectors in which to develop training for low-income/low-skilled adults (targeting sectors that offer a significant number of living wage jobs with career advancement that require only short-term training).  We also support policies that attract to the region businesses in sectors that provide the best opportunities for low-income residents to gain quality employment.

Improving Community College Access for Low-Income Adults
SJI identifies problems and proposes solutions to increase affordability and accessibility of education and training for low-income/low-skilled adults within the community college system.

Building Job Retention and Career Advancement
SJI raises awareness among policymakers of the relationships between employment, work supports (e.g. childcare, healthcare), and asset building in improving the economic circumstances of low-income workers and their families.

Click here to read more about our policy work.