E22: Stories from the Field: Lessons from Great Jobs KC

[Music] What could happen if we take our workforce to new heights? Workforce on the mic presented by NOTA brings you inspirational stories, innovative solutions, and expert insights that are shaping the future of the workforce. Tune in for dynamic conversations that motivate and transform the workforce development community and now on to the episode. [Music] Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, all you workforce warriors across the country. My name is Alexis Franks, your Director of Membership with the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals, and welcome to another episode of Workforce on the mic presented by NOTA. Today's episode focuses on something so many workforce leaders talk about, but may be hard to truly achieve at scale, and that's deep partnership driven workforce solutions that meet people where they are and move them quickly towards jobs. And we're joined today by Earl Martin-Falen, CEO of Great Jobs KC in skilled US, and Great Jobs KC is really known for challenging our traditional workforce models and building a bold collaborative approach to bring together employers, education, and community organizations into true alignment for job seekers. And through their initiative, they've reached thousands of individuals, so I'm very excited to get to speak with Earl today, and learn a little bit more about the work that they're doing, and how we can replicate as workforce warriors in our programs today. So, Earl, welcome to you. Thanks, Alexis, great to be here. Yes, absolutely. So we're going to do what we call passing the mic. So, Earl, I will pass you the mic this morning. And then for our listeners that may not be familiar, can you briefly just give us a little insight on who you are, where you are and the work that you're doing? Sure, so name is Earl Martin-Falen, as you shared. Bless to come through some great public schools here, a little bit outside of Boston, Massachusetts, a small town called Norwood, but was attracted to Kansas City through an incredible organization that when I arrived, focused on giving college scholarships to those who wanted to get a degree as a pathway to a good job, and the program was called KC Scholars. And we awarded 50,000 dollar college scholarships to 500 adults a year. And my board chair at that point said, you know, that half of the kids who are coming out of high school are choosing college, but half of the kids are choosing to get careers. And will you develop a program that will help those who want to go from high school to a good paying job? Would you develop a program? And that's how we developed the Great Jobs KC program, serving all adults, 17 older in Kansas City. So it's been a blessing to create that program. We've got an incredibly generous philanthropic support. And now we're working obviously to get SNAP and WEOA and maybe Workforce Pell. And should that become a resource for us to serve more and more adults in Kansas City? Awesome, awesome. And I know Earl and getting prepared for our episode, we looked a lot into the work that has gone into establishing Great Jobs KC and how many people you've really impacted young people and adults. So can you help us dig a little bit deeper? And what Workforce Challenge has really led you to begin looking at this partnership based approach to helping youth move into great careers? Yeah, I mean, we were blessed to come out of the gates getting a $50 million grant from the Coffin Foundation to build the infrastructure and team. And they made that big of a grant because the Workforce ecosystem in Kansas City was very fragmented. A lot of small programs helping 25 adults get jobs a year, helping 100, I think the largest was helping 215 adults per year get jobs. And so we said, wow, this is a fragmented system. Everybody's going to the employers, making the same pictures. Everybody's talking to the community college is about being more agile in their ability to adapt to what the workforce needs. And very few people really supporting the schools on their journey. So we said, what if we could create a collaborative model that built on the strengths of the ecosystem? Didn't put Great Jobs KC in a place to compete, but actually to help organize it. So we said, we'll do the community outreach and at our peak, we had to slow down a little bit, but at our peak, we had 1000 adults per month signing up because we were going to 164 community events to barber shops, to sporting events to churches. We were just going where we knew our families were and letting them know, hey, there's an opportunity for you if you're interested in getting a better paying job. And for us, our recruitment is really if you're 17 or older and you're making under $45,000, you're eligible for the program. So those were the things. Then we said, well, wait a second, we listened to employers, employers said, we need, yeah, we want the hard skills, but we need the soft skills showing up on time, writing a professional email. If you have a conflict with your boss or peer, managing that in an effective way, and then we listened to our scholars who said, hey, we could use them up with budgeting and finances, open them my first bank account, etc. We need some up with the resume writing, we need to have the tools to dress for success. And so we put together month long professional workshops, again, but in collaboration, we said, let's do this right where you are. So libraries, boys and girls clubs, churches, schools, let's do this where you are so that we can take that away. Then we also listened and heard from our adults, just from listening to them and looking at the research, what are the barriers to success? And we have an 83% graduation rate, which is pretty extraordinary for an adult, our average scholar is 32 years old and has two children and we're 60% women, 40% men. So very, very high completion rates. What gets in the way? Transportation, childcare, housing, you know, those were some of the pieces. So we said, let's partner with the groups that provide childcare, let's partner with the Uber as it relates to, hey, we're going to have a special code to get you from place A to place B for the first month of your work when you don't yet have that check on the stable income. Let's help you with housing stability. We're partnering with this group called driven development. They actually are providing a affordable lease to own program for many of our schools. We're starting with 250 schools this year and that will expand every year so that more and more schools can get the housing they need. And then we said, let's partner, let's not run the programs ourselves for the occupational skills. Let's partner with programs that we vet, but at community college, trade schools, for profit and nonprofit training providers. Let's partner with you and the only way I will select you is if you have an 80% success rate so that 80% of your schools graduate and get the certification we need. And then we said, let's partner with employers. We have over 100 employers in Kansas City who have signed an MOU with us saying we want we want to take a look at your schools once they're ready for for employment. So that's that's kind of what we've done with blessed with and we started in 2023. We've served over 10,000 scholars since we started over 5,000 are coming through our program this year and our graduates are, as I said, they're earning 11,500 more than when they started plus they have full benefits for themselves and the children. So it's really started to organize the ecosystem so that it's an easier path and we're kind of serving as a bridge from there are a lot of people who are unemployed or under employed. There are a lot of employers who will have thousands of job openings and we just try to try to provide that bridge from from that place to a good paying job. Absolutely and there's a lot to unpack there so I think you started out with what all of our listeners may need to hear that we really position ourselves not as a competitor but as a strategic partner within the system. You can tell the way that you selected your partners as well that this is really how you organize the entire ecosystem to benefit the person that we're serving and the outcomes speak for themselves right so if you're placing an individual into a position or into a career where they're earning sustainable wages. That means the system is working the system is acting exactly as it is supposed to and that's a key gem for our listeners to take away from today we're not competitors we are all in the business of serving individuals that need assistance with getting into good employment and if we approach it from that perspective it can change the outcome significantly so that was a huge piece and I love to see that that has come together for you all. And we operate there. There's a lot of workforce programs that operate in similar small communities that's doing the best that they can with the funding that they have. And they're seeking to partner in other areas with employers and colleges and other resources. So what do you feel or what has, can you tell has made the difference from a traditional workforce collaboration in the work that you've done with great jobs, Casey? Yeah, I think that, you know, we're very blessed to have an extraordinary team, as I'm sure many of your listeners do. We were blessed to get the capital from Coffin Foundation, as I said. It was first 50 million dollars and then they put in another 60 million dollars because we were exceeding our objectives. We were blessed to have that. I also believe that because it, to your point, because it was a collaboration, right? So we were actually recruiting students, we're preparing students if they don't, if they don't successfully complete our 30 days, the professional skills workshops, they don't go to occupational skills training. It's also tuition free to our scholars, so that helps. And so I think because we came in from place that way, we're going to find really talented people who are looking for a better future and better economic standing for their families. We're going to screen them. We're going to support them. We get to one-on-one, we call them scholar advocates, but somebody else might call them a case manager, who's touching base with you every two weeks to make sure you're doing okay, is something getting in the way of your success, how can we break down those barriers so you continue to persist? I think because it was, because we approached it from a collaborative perspective and everybody wins, right? This, the training providers win and community college win because we're recruiting the students, we're supporting the students, and we're helping you get high graduation rates and high employment rates, and we're sharing the data that, hey, you're graduates are making almost $12,000 more when they compete. I think the employers won because we listened to them. They were the ones who said, you have to do these professional skills workshops. We're getting folks who, yeah, they've got the credential, but they don't have the soft skills, and it's hurting them. We have a 91% retention rate, one year after getting your first job, because we keep that support with the scholar advocate and the other resources all the way through the first year of employment. So I think, I think part of our success has been, we're very metrics driven, we try to get our scholars to jobs that pay $45 to $125,000 a year, plus benefits. The only exception really is in healthcare, where our CNAs and QMAs and some others make $35,000, but they come back to us in six months to get training and know, they're making $45 to $65,000 a year, plus benefits. So I think collaboration has been the key, a really good team has been the key, and then obviously having the resources has also been essential. And that makes a huge difference in all of our workforce programs, and it's so important for us to be able to show those outcomes to continue to have access to those resources so that collaboration is definitely key. And I don't want to skip over a piece that you said as well of your role or the role of great jobs, Casey, and what it looks like in recruiting the individuals that are scholars. That's a huge piece. Our traditional workforce programs can be somewhat limited in the way that they recruit for individuals to participate, either they've got their connections with the schools, but you mentioned a couple of times in our conversation today that you really meet them where they are. So what does that look like when you're trying to initially get a person engaged in workforce services? What systems make it possible for that recruitment to actually stick? Yeah, we're just where blessed Jen Clark is the head of our, and needed Daniels of the head of our community engagement. And we call it community engagement because that's really what it is. And so part of that piece is we have a 12 person team that is out at events every day, nights, weekends. They are wherever you would find our families. And so that has been critical. They have an iPad and it's five minutes when we meet you, right? It's not a long process, but it's five minutes when we meet you. Hey, I'm with great jobs, Casey. We help folks get jobs at pay 45 to $125,000 a year. It's a short term training program. Would you be interested? Yes, I'm interested. We get your information, but it's just five minutes because sometimes you're coming out of the target with your kids. You're coming out of the hair salon or what happened. You're coming out of church. So we say, hey, just let's be quick there. And then within 24 hours, you get a phone call so that we get to know you. What pathway might you be interested in? We have healthcare, IT, construction, supply chain, logistics, manufacturing, right? So what pathway might you be interested in? You don't know? Okay. Let's open up the great jobs website with you. And you can see a two minute video on a hundred different careers that might be of interest with you. Right? Healthcare has, you know, our healthcare park is have 110 different types of jobs within the healthcare industry. So we walk that through with you and start to, okay, great. Now we know that what supports might you need? Is child care good for you? Is your housing stable? Do you have a reliable transportation? What might get in the way? And then we start to figure out how we can connect you to our 42 social service agency partners who might be able to help you with that. And now I'm going to connect you after this call. You're going to get a call within a week from your scholar advocate. And that person's there to be with you from day one all the way through the end of your first year of employment. And they're just there to be a listening a sound board just to help you out. They'll send a text. They'll give you a call. Any time you need anything, that's who you, so that process and that thoughtful kind of what I would say intake process allows us to know our scholars and and let's them know we're partners with them. We're going to walk this journey with them and help them overcome whatever may get in the way of their success. So that community engagement team and that intake process I think are a critical reason why we have such, you know, 83% graduation rate, which is very, very high. And then the successful obviously North Star, which is getting that really good job that helps you make more for yourself and your families. I love that you mentioned all of the work that goes into that really assessing where the need might be for the individual. And then seeking to go out and find them where they wherever they are, wherever they are. And big, big, big shout out to all of our career managers or scholar advocates, our case workers, all of those individuals that make that work happen every single day. Without you, we would definitely need to be looking for some people to serve. So you all are putting in that work every single day and we appreciate you. And you mentioned at your peak, enrolling a thousand people per month, those are huge, huge, huge numbers. For that type of success to continue to happen, what circumstances, what type of environment can we as workforce professionals create for anyone that might be trying to scale their programs and serve more people? Yeah, to us, the resources are critical. So we leverage snappy and tea, we leverage career savings accounts, we leverage we owe as some resources. There are obviously many others. And we're watching very carefully workforce Pell. And how do the rules and regulations for that play out and could that be a resource that allows us to serve, continue to serve, you know, not 5,000 scholars a year, but 10,000 scholars a year with and just making it making those resources available has been a critical part of our ability to serve all the adults who are wanting to change their lives or improve their economic status. I love that you mentioned that as well, the work with the workforce Pell, even though we're as a strategic partner, we have partnerships with training providers, community colleges and universities. So a lot of our workforce programs may think, you know, I'm not getting these resources directly, so maybe they don't help me scale. When you're positioned in the right way and you have the right community partners and schools and institutions at the table, that makes you a stronger ecosystem. Yes. So I love your perspective of how it's not about what, who gets the resource, but how can we as an ecosystem use that resource to increase our impact and scale our programs? So that's a huge really good point that our listeners can hopefully take away from today as well. So for our workforce professionals that are maybe just in the beginning of thinking about how they can build the ecosystem to scale their programs or thinking about how they can partner with the right people at the right place at the right time. There's some things that you think they sure are advice that you might have for those that maybe just in the beginning stages. Yeah, I think for those who are at the beginning, I mean, we're only three years old with great jobs case C. So I still think that's a great thing. think we're young and learning. I think one of the critical pieces is having high standards for partners. And so part of that comes through a written memorandum of understanding and MOU. Part of that comes from setting up a cadence where you regularly talk about successes, well, goals for the collaboration, successes and challenges. And you have it honest conversations as it relates to successes and challenges and the challenges. So that has really helped us. I think listening very closely to employers, because at the end of the day, if somebody gets a credential and they don't get a job, we have failed. And in my opinion, great jobs has failed. So we have to listen to what is it that the employers want and need, both hard skills and soft skills. So I think that's another important part. You mentioned it, which is, you know, if the resource, if you look at your cost model, our program costs about $5,000 per scholar, it varies obviously. And LPN is more expensive than maybe a commercial driver type of thing. But just roughening it with all in terms of credential and wrap-around services, about $5,000 per scholar. So if you can somehow have a partner that takes the major burden of that, which is the training costs off of your docket, and all of a sudden, now that $3,000 is covered by a state, federal or other resource, now now your program costs $2,000. And now you have a really good case to make to philanthropic investors that, hey, we want your philanthropy. But if you give us $2,000, we leverage another $3,000. And that's a model that a lot of philanthropic donors want to support because they see a pathway possibly to sustainability. So those are some of the early things to think about. And then what is your system to capture data? We were so shocked when we talked to a lot of our training providers. They didn't know persistence rates. They didn't know why students dropped out of the program. They didn't know what the cost of enrolling a student was, or, you know, a client acquisition. I know it's corporate speak, but they didn't know what that cost was. They didn't, they just didn't understand the key metrics that you have to look at as a, as a young nonprofit who's trying to say, we're adding value to the community. You have to have, I believe, you have to have clear metrics. And we actually didn't, Mathematica didn't independent evaluation of our program, which most wouldn't do in year two of their program. But we did it because we knew that having that independent validation, 83% completion rate, 11,500 more our graduates earned when they, when they complete our program, 91% retention after one year. They having that metric, those metrics then allowed us to go to other philanthropic resources and ask for 55 million, ask for 100 million, ask for, et cetera, et cetera. They also helped us with the state agencies that the workforce, you know, kind of development agencies who are saying, yeah, we don't know you. We know these other programs that have been around for a decade or two decades. We know these community colleges, but we don't know you. And so that external validation really helped, really helped us in making our case that, no, we're deserving of we owe or we're deserving of snap, we're deserving of workforce pound, we're deserving of other, you know, resources that are available to, to great and impactful workforce development programs. And that's honestly great advice for any of our listeners today. And if I heard you correctly, there were a lot of pieces to it, but essentially we cannot do this work alone. There's not one single program that can operate in a way that can have meaningful impact by itself. So really, again, positioning ourselves in the ecosystem where we're a partner. And that can make a complete difference in how we're supported and funded and the impact that we have. So those are all great pieces to take away from our conversation today. And Earl, we have what we call mic drop moments on where I'm also on the mic. So you've given us quite a few mic drop moments for today. And it's really changing the mindset and how we're providing services along with our partners. What does collaboration look like for us? Are there shared outcomes and goals and successes and challenges and having that open and honest communication really can make the difference for the individual, the scholar, the customer or job secret that we're working with every single day. So we definitely appreciate having you today with us, Earl. Again, we appreciate all of the work that's happening in Kansas City. And for anyone that's interested in learning a little bit more, what is the best way to learn about great jobs, KC or to get in touch with you? Yeah, go to greatjobskc.org and learn more about our program. Reach out to us. We're willing to partner and collaborate with anybody. We actually have a spin off that is working right now in eight other states to help replicate this program and reach out to us. We think we can end poverty in a major U.S. city. So we'd love to partner with you or share anything that will be helpful to you being successful in your community. Cool. Great. Thank you so much. And thank you again for joining us today. We look forward to continuing our connection and hopefully seeing you soon in the near future and continuing our engagement. Thank you so much, Alexis. It's great to be with you today.