MUS 4/27/22 Re-Entry Learning Lab Midwest Urban Strategies - Wayne State University - Partner4Work 2022 Re-Entry Learning Lab. Please join us to share innovation and best practices!

In March 2021 MUS’ Board of Directors discussed its local relationships with the construction industry. It was determined that MUS should conduct a survey of its membership to understand each local area and the WDBs relationships within the construction industry. That survey was completed and revealed opportunities to grow in our relationships with the construction ecosystem. MUS’ Executive Director, Tracey Carey, will share the results of the survey and the opportunities it highlights to deepen relationships and enhance or expand partnerships locally and regionally. The Associated General Contractors (AGC) will join Ms. Carey in a discussion of the experience of partnering with local WDBs and how we might grow those relationships with the AGC as a potential scalable partner as we prepare to meet the moment that an infrastructure package will bring to our local communities. Joining Tracey Carey will be Mark Kessenich, Keith Laschinger & Bridgette Williams

Occupations in the technology space have evolved their training requirements and many companies have moved away from the traditional requirement of a college degree to a skills- based approach that is focused on stacked credentials. This opened up a new venue for training in the information technology space through Bootcamp programs. These programs blew up as federal funding through Tech Hire was invested to grow the talent pipeline and increase the diversity of professionals in the industry. Bootcamps are expensive training vehicles, ranging anywhere from $8,000 - $21,000 and place a significant demand on time for participants. The failure rate for bootcamp participants early on was around 80%. This meant that resources were spent on training that did not result in successful credentialing or employment. To manage the risk, MUS has partnered with Grand Circus to deliver a Readiness program that helps to identify participants most likely to succeed in a bootcamp program. This session will introduce the membership to the Bootcamp Readiness program and how it can be accessed to support workforce participants to achieve success in pursuing a career in technology. This session is presented by Tracey Carey, Damien Rocchi & Anthony Tuttle.

Midwest Urban Strategies (MUS) has created the first-of-its-kind cohort. Seventeen professionals were nominated for their roles as emerging leaders in workforce development, specifically related to their efforts around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to be the inaugural participants. By recognizing the tremendous individual work of each leader, Workforce Innovators offers a platform for mentorship, collaborative brainstorming, and idea-sharing to leverage best practices and incubate new philosophies. Tracey Carey leads Midwest Urban Strategies (MUS), a consortium of 13 of the largest urban workforce boards in the Midwest. With more than $20 million in federal and philanthropic investment and a growing portfolio of business and service partners, MUS delivers high value resource to its members. The consortium’s mission is to grow business investment and expand and diversify talent in the Midwest. Prior to her tenure with MUS, Ms. Carey enjoyed nearly two decades of service developing and supporting workforce development programs and strategies. As the Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, Tracey facilitated the summer youth employment program that provided first jobs for more than 500 young people annually. She also developed and facilitated training programs for opportunity youth that reengaged them in school and/or work. In 2014 she joined Employ Milwaukee, the workforce development board for Milwaukee County (WI) as the Director of Fund Development & Strategic Initiatives. While serving in that capacity, Ms. Carey raised an additional $13 million dollars and supported the startup of MUS. Then, in 2018, she left Milwaukee to join the staff at Partner4Work, the workforce development board for the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, PA. As the Chief Strategy Officer. At P4W, Tracey led a team of innovators working to improve workforce development practice, including the restart of the area’s workforce funding collaborative. Through her leadership, P4W brought more than $10 million dollars to the region in her first year. Tracey holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, Certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, Summa cum laude, Certificate in Non-Profit Management from the Center for Non-Profit Management, and Business and Economic Development Finance Professional Certification from the National Development Council.

Workforce Development Board leaders are mired in politics at every level. Oftentimes these relationships can seem perfunctory and transactional. Yet, the very nature of the work of an effective leader is to build champions that can help that leader to advance their strategies to best meet the needs of local employers and job seekers. This session will begin a dialogue about the importance of advocacy, the benefits of telling our story to decisionmakers, and the process of building the social and political capital necessary to achieve our goals. The discussion will focus on the power of relationships and how we can most effectively convert a cheerleader into a champion. Whether you need to deepen your relationship with your Board Chair or influence your State Administrator, knowing how to use all of your relationships to influence and advance your level of connection will make you a more effective leader and changemaker. Presented by: Lee Foley, Ron Painter, Jerry Roberts & Katie Spiker

WHO: Midwest Urban Strategies (MUS) is an industry association representing the workforce development boards (WDBs) of the major metro areas across the Midwest region. Member areas include Wichita (KS), Kansas City (MO), Minneapolis (MN), Milwaukee (WI), Chicago (IL), Gary (IN), Indianapolis (IN), Detroit (MI), Cleveland (OH), Columbus (OH), Canton (OH), Cincinnati (Oh), and Pittsburgh (PA). These WDBs organize through MUS to advocate for effective workforce policy and investment, learn together about the tenets of emerging promising practices and work to understand how they scale and network to improve the leadership capacity of WDBs across the region. WHAT: MUS Bi Annual Virtual Convening – Rebuilding the Workforce through Innovation & Best Practice. WHEN: Wednesday, October 20, 2021 9 AM CST THROUGH Friday, October 22, 2021 12 PM CST WHERE: Right Here at www.musvirtual.com

Even after seven years, there are still challenges in the implementation of WIOA – some stemming from DOL, some from state agency interpretation of WIOA, and some from local interpretation and implementation. These challenges provide an opportunity to look at the intention of WIOA and the impact on local service delivery that results from some of the imposed regulations and requirements. This conversation will give local boards the opportunity to pose specific questions about specific policy requirements that are enforced at the local level that seem incongruous with the interpretation of WIOA. The goal of this session is to give locals the opportunity to ask and learn why a rule was put in place and how it complies with the intention of WIOA as governing legislation.

As MUS prepares to meet the moment that has emerged from the economic challenges from COVID-19, it has reached out to policy makers to understand what to expect from infrastructure funding and the budget necessary to train and support those workers dislocated during this economic recession. We want to hear from our elected officials about their priorities for improving the workforce and how they anticipate those priorities being funded. This session will include remarks from elected leaders and department staff and provide an opportunity to dialogue with them about the work we are doing in our local areas to respond to the needs of employers and job seekers. Invited: Rep Krishnamoorthi, Senator Baldwin & More! U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and raised by her grandparents in the Badger State. She graduated from Madison West High School and went on to double-major in political science and mathematics at Smith College. In 1989, she received her law degree from UW-Madison. She served on the Madison Common Council; was elected to four terms on the Dane County Board of Supervisors; and in 1992, was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly, serving three terms. In 1998, Wisconsin’s 2nd Congressional District elected her to Congress and after serving 14 years in the House of Representatives, Baldwin was elected to the United States Senate in 2012. She was reelected in 2018. Senator Baldwin serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee and is the Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration. She is also a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

COVID-19 was unexpected and unplanned and left many already stretched systems struggling to keep pace with the need that emerged. We all saw what happened with the unemployment insurance system in most states as outdated technology systems were pressed beyond their capacity. These pressures also had an impact on the corrections system. As infection rates in prisons and jails crept up, corrections leadership were faced with difficult decisions. Most decided to downsize populations and close movement in the facility. This severely limited the ability of service providers to continue to reach inmates and provide them with the training and supportive services that help prepare them for life after prison. This discussion is intended to focus on the problems that surfaced, solutions that were put to practice, and what ultimately worked (or didn’t).

WHO: Midwest Urban Strategies (MUS) is an industry association representing the workforce development boards (WDBs) of the major metro areas across the Midwest region. Member areas include Wichita (KS), Kansas City (MO), Minneapolis (MN), Milwaukee (WI), Chicago (IL), Gary (IN), Indianapolis (IN), Detroit (MI), Cleveland (OH), Columbus (OH), Canton (OH), Cincinnati (Oh), and Pittsburgh (PA). These WDBs organize through MUS to advocate for effective workforce policy and investment, learn together about the tenets of emerging promising practices and work to understand how they scale and network to improve the leadership capacity of WDBs across the region. WHAT: MUS Bi Annual Virtual Convening – Rebuilding the Workforce through Innovation & Best Practice. WHEN: Wednesday, October 20, 2021 9 AM CST THROUGH Friday, October 22, 2021 12 PM CST WHERE: Right Here at www.musvirtual.com

The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) works between colleges, universities, training providers, and students to improve accessibility and retention through completion of college degrees. CAEL is uniquely positioned to bolster the attainment of college credit for workforce participants. In this session, we will introduce how they do that work and the benefits of implementing a credit for prior learning partnership strategy. Joining Jerry Roberts for this presentation we welcome Jack Mills & Matthew Waltz .

Per Scholas has operated as one of the oldest intermediaries in the technology space and have demonstrated performance outcomes that document the success of their training and programming. They are a national provider and have a strong presence in our region. This session will give us the opportunity to learn more about this nationally recognized model and discuss ways that we might be able to partner together to advance job seekers interested in a career in the technology industry. The Per Scholas staff is led by CEO and President Plinio Ayala. He was born and raised in the South Bronx just as it grew into a national emblem for urban poverty and disinvestment. His experience instilled a lifelong passion for creating economic opportunity, and shortly after graduating from Wesleyan University with a degree in American Studies, he devoted his career to building “win-win” solutions to social and economic problems, first at Jobs for Youth and then at SoBro, and finally, Per Scholas. In 2003, he became President and CEO of Per Scholas and has been instrumental in all the organization’s achievements since then -- from evolving its original mission, which was to bridge the digital divide by refurbishing end-of-life computer equipment for new use in families and schools, to its accelerating national growth today. In the process, he has incubated strong organizational capacities to respond to changing market conditions, pursue entrepreneurial opportunities and embrace rigorous measurements of impact. He often says that he can imagine no greater satisfaction than seeing people from diverse backgrounds channel all their capabilities. passion and curiosity into life-transforming technology careers. Plinio sits on the boards of the Workforce Professional Training Institute, Economic Mobility Partners, and SoBro. He has also served on the New York State Workforce Recovery Strategy committee since 2020. He has received numerous honors, including the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Community Leader Award in 2019, Newscorp’s Murdoch Community Hero Award in 2018, and Hispanic Community Leader of the Year by Crain’s New York in 2016, among others.

WHO: Midwest Urban Strategies (MUS) is an industry association representing the workforce development boards (WDBs) of the major metro areas across the Midwest region. Member areas include Wichita (KS), Kansas City (MO), Minneapolis (MN), Milwaukee (WI), Chicago (IL), Gary (IN), Indianapolis (IN), Detroit (MI), Cleveland (OH), Columbus (OH), Canton (OH), Cincinnati (Oh), and Pittsburgh (PA). These WDBs organize through MUS to advocate for effective workforce policy and investment, learn together about the tenets of emerging promising practices and work to understand how they scale and network to improve the leadership capacity of WDBs across the region. WHAT: MUS Bi Annual Virtual Convening – Rebuilding the Workforce through Innovation & Best Practice. WHEN: Wednesday, October 20, 2021 9 AM CST THROUGH Friday, October 22, 2021 12 PM CST WHERE: Right Here at www.musvirtual.com