STRATEGIES & KEY INITIATIVES
Our Near-Term Target: 40,000 more Detroiters Employed
Our Northstar Goal: 100,000 more Detroiters Employed
Detroit lags behind our peer cities in residential employment – without a coordinated and strategic focus on system change, it would take decades to reach our peer cities’ employment levels. To help us reach peer city residential employment rates, Detroit has set a target of creating a system that increases residential employment by 40,000.
Detroiters face many barriers though when it comes to obtaining and sustaining employment.
Achieving our goals will require unprecedented focus and swift action through the following strategic areas of focus:
The Mayor’s Workforce Development Board is advancing a number of programs and initiatives across these three focus areas. Each is designed to provide support for a specific target population or growing industry in the City of Detroit.
Systems Change
Connecting Detroiters to Opportunity
Detroit at Work is a platform that helps jobseekers learn about the training and jobs available in the city and employers find the talent they need to help their businesses grow.
Expanding SNAP Employment & Training for those in Poverty
More than 200,000 Detroiters receive food assistance under the federal SNAP program. Under the SNAP E&T Program, the USDA provides a 50% match for the cost of skills & occupational training, adult foundational education, work experience or support services that will lead to new or better employment for SNAP participants.
Training & Career Pathways
Modernizing Career Technical Education in Detroit
A partnership between the City of Detroit and Detroit Public Schools, the Randolph Career and Technical Center provides industry standard training in high wage, high-need building and construction trades for youth and adults. Our partnership continues as we expand this work to Breithaupt Career and Technical Center.
Investing in Employer-Led Training Programs
The Patient Care Associate training program was created in collaboration with the city’s three biggest healthcare systems, Detroit Medical Center, Henry Ford Health System and St. John Providence to train Detroiters for this in-demand role.
Expanding Youth-Related Employment and Training Programs
Grow Detroit’s Young Talent (GDYT) is a citywide summer jobs program that trains and employs young adults between the ages of 14 and 24 each summer.
Barrier Elimination
Expanding Returning Citizens & Expungement Initiatives
Our work centers on helping returning citizens and those with criminal records connect with training and job opportunities. We work with partners to reduce systemic barriers, support in prison training, align community resources and develop job opportunities.
Advocating for policy changes to help Detroiters succeed
We worked on efforts to pass recent legislation that will eliminate all Driver Responsibility Fees in Michigan on October 1, 2018. This work will help lift this financial burden for almost 76,000 Detroiters and put them on a path to a driver’s license.