The Workforce Partnership Team
Securing a steady, sustainable job with a livable wage is a critical element of many of United Way’s Steps to Success, including Basic Needs, College- and Career-Readiness and Financial Well-being.
Unfortunately, many Richmond residents face obstacles that prevent them from landing and maintaining a sustainable job. Many others are underemployed with little support towards upward mobility. Common barriers to employment include lack of developed soft skills, inconsistent transportation, insufficient wrap-around support services, lack of social capital, history of incarceration, undeveloped computer skills and lack of education and/or training to increase pay.
United Way is committed to removing these barriers and helping everyone in the Greater Richmond region find a path to success. One of the ways we do this is through the Workforce Partnership Team.
About the Workforce Partnership Team
The Workforce Partnership Team (WPT) brings together workforce professionals and those providing wrap-around services from across the Greater Richmond region. The goals of the team include streamlining services by building a network with strong referral mechanisms, sharing curriculum and best practices and providing professional development opportunities for team members. By setting these goals, the team aims to strengthen the region’s workforce system for job seekers, practitioners and employers.
United Way provides backbone support to the Workforce Partnership Team and employs a full-time staff member dedicated to leading Workforce Partnership Team activities.
The Workforce Partnership Team is supported through funding from the Bob and Anna Lou Schaberg Foundation.
Current partners include:
- A Better Day than Yesterday Initiative Program
- AARP Foundation
- Better Housing Coalition
- CARITAS
- Church Hill Activities and Tutoring
- Commonwealth Catholic Charities
- Communities at Work
- Community College Workforce Alliance (CCWA)
- Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired
- Feed More
- Henrico County Department of Social Services
- HumanKind
- International Rescue Committee
- J&G Workforce Development Services, LLC
- JobsRVA/Jobs for Life
- Magellan Complete Care of Virginia
- Office of Community Wealth Building
- Opportunity. Alliance. Re Entry. (OAR)
- ReEstablish Richmond
- Real Life
- Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity
- Richmond Opportunities, Inc./Richmond Health District
- Richmond Public Schools Educational Foundation
- Senior Connections
- SOAR365
- Southside Community Development and Housing Corporation
- St. Joseph’s Villa
- The Opus Network
- The READ Center
- The Salvation Army of Central Virginia
- The Success Foundation
- Time Entrepreneurship Foundation
- TradeCrews
- VCU Health
- Virginia Career Works Capital Region
- Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (DARS)
- YWCA Richmond
The Workforce Partnership Team has four main goals:
- Facilitate coordinated employment, training, and wrap-around service support to the unemployed and underemployed.
- Build a network of workforce professionals and develop referral mechanisms to address the needs of job seekers in the region.
- Share and implement curriculum and best practices that holistically prepare job candidates to fulfill the workforce needs of the emerging economy.
- Equip members to provide high quality workforce services by providing professional development opportunities.
The Workforce Partnership Team consists of working committees focused on soft skills development, co-case management systems, professional development and new member outreach.
Each committee designates one partner to serve on the Workforce Partnership Team Executive Committee.
The Workforce Partnership Team is a coalition of cross-sector partners that provide workforce development services at the direct-service or manager level.
All Workforce Partnership Team members agree to:
- Work collectively as a team to share information and build public awareness regarding employment sustainability;
- Develop and manage mechanisms to more effectively coordinate and communicate workforce services;
- Build and strengthen internal and external relationships between workforce development and wrap-around service providers so that they can better serve the needs of job seekers, employers, and the community;
- Advocate for policies and procedures that support the effective provision of workforce services.
Workforce Partnership Team meetings are held the second Tuesday of every month. Our meetings are currently taking place on Zoom as we remain diligent in preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Zoom Meeting
Tuesday, March 9, 2:30-4:00 p.m.
Topic: Workforce Development: Organizations Serving Clients with Disabilities
Speakers:
- Chris Martin, Director of Workforce Development, SOAR 365
- William Sutton, Workforce Development Specialist, Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (DARS)
- Karen Kahn, Business Relations Specialist, Department for the Blind and Vision impaired (DBVI)
- Travis Roelfs, Managing Director, The Opus Network
- Stephanie Porter-Lopez, Operations Leader, Workforce Support Services, Goodwill of Central and Coastal Virginia
More Workforce Partnership Team Content
- Read our Q&A with Anna Danese, Director of Workforce Partnerships here.
- Read our 2020 feature story on the Workforce Partnership Team here.
Contact
Anna Danese
Director of Workforce Partnerships
United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg
danesea@yourunitedway.org