Regional Workforce Development Event Bridges Communities and Careers
The Washington Jobs Initiative (WJI)’s commitment to improving workforce development was showcased at the final Eight Twenty-Eight-sponsored Regional Equity Lab Mixer in Tukwila this April, where stakeholders from across the workforce ecosystem gathered to collaborate on building more employment opportunities in our communities.
The event aimed to foster strategic connections between community-based organizations, employers, and career connected learning program leaders to create pathways to stable, growth-oriented careers for the next generation of Washington workers.
“You don’t know what you don’t know,” WA STEM Partnership Manager Raeshawna Ware said about the importance of networking at events of this nature. “And you have to be wise enough to say, ‘I need to go places where these people are going to be and help inform maybe some gaps in delivery and service.’”
By facilitating these crucial in-person conversations and opportunities for partnership, WJI is pioneering a future where all Washingtonians can access meaningful career opportunities regardless of background.
“I think that people don’t recognize the impact of having a group of humans together that are kind of like-minded and wanting to expand what we offer humans,” added Kelly Luthor, Worksite Learning Coordinator for the Renton School District, who attended the mixer to share information about Renton’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs.
She continued, “There are so many disadvantages that people encounter because of situations in their life that have nothing to do with who they actually are, or how they would be as an employee. And giving them the connection to these opportunities and just being aware that there are different places where people are looking for these opportunities…is integral.”
Ware attended the event because of its focus on culturally responsive instruction and justice-impacted youth, “Those are the students we lose so early that they don’t even get to some of our programs. So if there are organizations we could find ways to partner with, and [connect] with students that don’t typically make it to our programs because they end up in the justice system before that, we can interrupt that trajectory.”
As part of the first workshop, participants exchanged proven strategies for developing classroom learning experiences that honor and support justice-impacted youth, multilingual, and neurodivergent learners. A second workshop addressed the unique barriers facing justice-impacted individuals and saw subject matter experts discussing legal considerations, rights awareness, and opportunity pathways that should be considered when trying to build training environments and programs.
During the Q&A sessions, conversations centered on providing comprehensive support systems and the importance of developing specialized programs for underserved populations to ensure workforce development programs better reflect state demographics and genuinely impact all communities.
The event also featured a resource room, facilitating networking and providing access to employment resources, with QR codes available for feedback and follow-up information. WJI-affiliated organizations in the room included Career Connect Washington, Seattle Jobs Initiative, Per Scholas, Build 2 Lead, Team Child, and The Mockingbird Society.
“There’s energy in the room here,” James Ramirez, Senior Consultant for Partnerships with Seattle Jobs Initiative, said of the value of attending the mixer. “So coming here, meeting everybody, figuring out what people are doing – what’s the newest things, what are the new programs – sometimes you forget, so it’s great to reconnect and advance those things and collectively do it together.”
Veronica Wade, Director of Program Operations at SEIU Healthcare 1199NW Multi-Employer Training Fund, didn’t know what to expect attending the mixer, but was eager to connect with other organizations with similar goals for improving workforce development.
“For example, I met a person who is actually a licensed mental health professional. And we have newer apprenticeships in behavioral health [at SEIU Healthcare]. So I thought about connecting with him, and how we could connect the whole equity mindset to the apprentices that we have. Now I have his card, and I’m like, ‘How could we think about infusing some of this? And kind of pull some of these connections together into the things that we are doing in our organization.’”
Eight Twenty-Eight Chief Impact Officer Lawrence Garrett further emphasized the importance of creating spaces for community groups, employers and program leaders to connect and share best practices, “That’s been a lot of the beauty of what’s happened over the last few years – watching the magic of different constituents get together to problem-solve things together.”
This quarterly event will evolve in the coming months, with the valuable connections formed and knowledge exchanged continuing to strengthen WJI’s mission of creating meaningful workforce opportunities for communities across Washington state.
Learn more about WJI here.