Self-Sufficiency, Education & Employment - The John R. Oishei Foundation

The Workforce Investment Act requirement to develop a Comprehensive Local Plan offers Local Boards the opportunity to re-evaluate their current system's delivery of employment and training services in light of economic shifts, new initiatives, new mandates, and its vision for the economic and workforce development of the area. In accordance with the flexibility granted to the states, this planning guidance is provided to assist local areas in the development of a three-year plan.

Cornell University ILR: Study after study has shown, in research spanning forty years, that investments in high quality child care and early childhood education do more than pay significant returns to children and their families. They also benefit taxpayers, profit employers and employees, and enhance the economic vitality of communities. When parents can rely on quality child care, they are not only more productive employees, their children also succeed better in school and throughout life.

Brookings Institution: An analysis of poverty in cities and suburbs of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, based on data from the 2005 American Community Survey and Census 2000 by the Brookings Institution.

A study of income and poverty data for Upstate New York from 1980-2000 by the Brookings Institution.

UB Regional Institute: Recently released survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that: New York State, by certain measures, is both richer and poorer than the nation as a whole; wide income and poverty disparities persist within Buffalo Niagara (Erie and Niagara counties); and education is likely the best long-term antidote to poverty’s grip on individuals and communities.

Report by Workforce Alliance in Washington, DC: The report argues that the demand for workers to fill jobs in the middle of the labor market—those that require more than high-school, but less than a four-year degree—will likely remain quite robust relative to its supply, especially in key sectors of the economy. Accordingly, they see a need for increased U.S. investment in high-quality education and training in the middle of the skills range.

Fiscal Policy Institute: New York has the widest income gap between the rich and poor of all fifty states, a new report the finds. Released in conjunction with a national study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, the report, Pulling Apart in New York: An Analysis of Income Trends in New York State (44 pages, PDF), found that the gap between rich and poor in the state has continued to widen over the past two decades.

Upstate NY Regional Review: Roughly 22 million workers are expected to retire from the nation’s workforce between 2000 and 2010; this figure could rise to more than 35 million between 2010 and 2020, as the baby-boom generation begins to retire As one might expect, a significant number of new workers could be required to replace retirees. The need for new workers is likely to be more acute in upstate New York.

Children and families benefit from a strategy which identifies service needs and offers intervention early on; this helps to diminish risk and reduce the utilization of other more costly programs in our child welfare service continuum. Such a hypothesis is supported by the standards of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which emphasize prevention and early intervention in making policy and funding decisions.

From DivertyData.org: Across metropolitan America, black and Hispanic children face particularly severe challenges, especially compared to white and Asian children. Not only do black and Hispanic children live in families that experience many disadvantages, but disparities among individuals and families are exacerbated by vast inequalities in neighborhood and school environments.

Institute for Higher Education Policy with support from The Sallie Mae Fund: While 87 percent of parents expect their children to go to college, nearly half of middle school parents have not started planning for college and nearly two-thirds have not started saving, a new study finds.

Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University: Community organizing can provide a significant boost to student achievement among young people from low-income and underserved neighborhoods, a new study finds. The report, Organized Communities, Stronger Schools: A Preview of Research Findings (41 pages, PDF), is based on preliminary results from the six-year, $4.8 million Community Involvement Program funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.