As states and cities across the nation transform lives and communities hit hardest by the pandemic, iWORK! is a clarion call for leaving no one behind and giving every person a fair shot and an equal chance to get ahead.
Economic well-being achieved through education and work is the defining feature of The Fedcap Group. Helping people get to work is our contribution to counter exclusion and marginalization.
What we stand for:
Every person should have a fair shot at getting ahead with a job that:
- Supports a household
- Provides purpose, structure and self-esteem
- Provides an opportunity for ongoing learning and growth
- Builds community ties and meaningful connections
What We Know
- 14.8% of US workers were unemployed in April 2020–an unprecedented level–before declining to 6.7% in December 2020, a still-elevated level.
- 9.9% of Black workers and 8.5 percent of Latino workers in the US were unemployed in February 2021, compared to 5.6 percent of white workers.
- 20% of people with disabilities participated in the US labor force as opposed to 66% of people without disabilities during the pandemic in December 2020.
- 21.2% of workers without a high school degree were unemployed in the US in April 2020 compared to 8.4% of workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher. The gap between educated and less-educated workers remained in December 2021.
What We Will Do
- Create a community of people who are invested in work and can be leveraged to help break down barriers to economic well-being for one another.
- Demonstrate through people’s personal experiences, why work matters.
- Build a compelling voice to advocate for public policy that will change the job landscape.
- Provide education to business…why hiring people with disabilities matters to their future.
How We Will Do It
- Through participatory planning, we’ll garner the insight, and recommendations for action for the companies of The Fedcap Group– from individuals with lived experience who are working, as well as those who hope to get to work.
- Through the various social media platforms of The Fedcap Group’s companies, we’ll advance the authentic voices and experiences of individuals who will share their challenges and how they overcame them to get a job. These iWORK! champions will post what worked for them, encouraging others to take bold step towards training and/or employment.
- Our white papers will bolster the key data points and recommendations of existing research and integrate our expertise in the field of workforce development, and importantly, the voices of individuals with lived experience.
- We’ll disseminate the papers on our social media channels; and
- Host Zoom roundtables with stakeholders and invite business and government leaders to learn.
- An iWORK! speakers’ bureau will encourage and inform both individuals with disabilities as well as necessary new stakeholders–leaders in business and government.
If you’d like to help us give voice to iWORK! click here.