January 17, 2003

Some of the stories inside this issue:

·          Comptroller and City Council to Issue Procurement Reform Recommendations

·          Coalition Releases Staff Development Training Institute Plan

·          DOE Presents Progress on Spending its WIA Allocations

·          City Council to Hold Hearing on Summer Youth Employment Program

·          Fuchs Says PA Recipients Need Education and Training to Move to Livable Wage Jobs

2003 may herald major legislative changes in welfare-to-work and workforce development, but early indications are that it will require an enormous effort on the part of our organization and our members to ensure that these changes benefit rather than shortchange the unemployed.  The Coalition expects to take an active role in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Workforce Investment Act (WIA) reauthorizations, promoting changes sought by our members and fighting off negative aspects of some of the Administration’s early proposals.

Below, we summarize the current status of TANF, the WIA budget and WIA reauthorization and tell you about a move by the Administration to standardize performance measures across all employment and training programs.

TANF Funding Extended; President Releases “Welfare Reform Agenda”

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Congress was supposed to reauthorize the 1996 welfare law by September 30, 2002.  With Congress deadlocked however, TANF funding was extended until March 31 of this year.  On January 14, the President “re-released” – with minor modifications – a plan submitted to Congress last year to “strengthen families and help more welfare recipients work toward independence and self-reliance.”

Elements of the President’s plan include: (i) a 40-hour work requirement; (ii) 24 hours a week of a restrictive set of work activities that exclude education and training; (iii) an increase in the participation rate from 50% to 70% of the welfare caseload; (iv) continuance of existing TANF funding levels; and (v) “superwaiver” authority for the states, which would allow them to consolidate TANF, Food Stamp, education, housing and homeless assistance programs and to reduce funding for these programs by replacing state dollars with federal funding.

Although Senate leadership changed to Republican hands, the fate of TANF in the Senate remains unclear.  We will continue to push with our counterpart at the national level, The Workforce Alliance, for a 35-hour work week, flexible work activities that include education and training and adequate child care funding.

WIA Reauthorization

With a full plate already, Congress is expected to “tweak,” rather than overhaul, WIA.  A USDOL white paper is expected to be issued this month and an Administration reauthorization proposal is planned for early February.  We will analyze and post the proposal on our website as soon as it is available.

Funding Update - Workforce Investment Act /Personal Reemployment Accounts

Congress reconvened on January 7 and began working intensely to reach agreement on the majority of FY 2003 spending bills on which the post-election, lame duck session could not agree.  The Administration would like work on the 2003 appropriations to be completed prior to the State of the Union address and the release of the President’s budget proposal on February 2.  The FY 2003 appropriation governs WIA funds for program year 2003 which starts on July 1, 2003.

A continuing resolution keeps funds for the WIA flowing, for now, at FY 2002 levels.  But the change of leadership in the Senate has put continued funding for WIA programs at current levels in doubt.  The President’s FY 2003 requests included a 5% cut in WIA adult training funds, a more than 10% cut in funds for dislocated workers, and the elimination of funding for Youth Opportunity Grants.

Workforce programs could face threats of additional funding reductions in FY 2004.  In addition, the President’s proposed FY 2004 budget may eliminate Carl Perkins Act funding for vocational and technical learning at both the secondary and postsecondary levels, and use those dollars to fund a projected shortfall in the Pell Grant program.  The Office of Vocational and Adult Education at the Department of Education is also rumored to be transferred to the Department of Labor. 

A new wrinkle in the budget picture came up last week when the President proposed funding “Personal Reemployment Accounts” (PRAs) as part of his Economic Stimulus Bill to help the growing number of unemployed Americans find jobs.  The PRA program would provide states with a total of $3.6 billion over two years to develop accounts of up to $3,000 dollars for unemployed individuals who have exhausted UI benefits or who are identified as “likely” to do so.  The accounts can be used to purchase job training or other services (e.g., transportation, child care) to assist them to secure new employment.  The PRAs would be distributed and administered through the WIA One Stop system.  Few details have been released about the exact structure of the proposed PRA initiative, such as how PRAs would fit into future funding and/or restructuring of existing programs such as dislocated worker training provided under WIA and income support provided by the nation’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) system.  For more information on the President’s proposal, visit: http://www.doleta.gov/reemployment/Reemployment_index.cfm and http://www.doleta.gov/reemployment/Final_QA.cfm.

Changed Performance Measures for Workforce Programs?

A draft White House plan proposes collapsing 17 different WIA performance measures into four common measures to be used across 31 federal programs.  The four proposed performance measures for programs serving adults are: employment entry rate, job retention rate, earnings increases, and a new efficiency measure involving the appropriation level per participant.  Data for the entry, retention and earnings gains measures would be gathered from unemployment insurance records.  The proposed policy would affect workforce development programs administered by the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Interior and Veterans Affairs. 

The New York City Comptroller and the City Council will issue recommendations on January 21^st that would streamline the contracting process, simplify VENDEX forms and end the city’s practice of registering contracts months after performance has begun.  While some of these changes can be done administratively – i.e., quickly – others will need action by the City’s Procurement Policy Board (PPB) or the City Council.

While we are going to press prior to the release of the recommendations, some of the proposals, which were earlier recommended by the Coalition (see http://www.nycetc.org/pdf/Contracting%20recs.pdf), will include the following:

·          Amendment of the PPB rules or Administrative Code to require the payment of a 6% annual interest rate compounded daily calculated from 30 days after the start date of the contract until the contract is registered.  (NOTE: A report on Procurement Indicators issued by the Mayor’s Office of Contracts notes that 96% of DOE’s contracts were registered late in FY 2002, and 80% of HRA’s contracts were registered late);

·          Identification of procurement bottlenecks causing delays and provision of estimated key procurement milestone dates in all solicitations;

·          Movement towards an electronic contracting system by amending the Administrative Code to require all solicitation information be made available in electronic format, and allowance of the electronic submission of bids, proposals, etc., to the City by vendors; and

·          Reinstatement of the PPB Rule requiring human service agencies to publish a forecast plan of their next fiscal year contracts.

We will provide a more detailed analysis of the final proposals in our next newsletter.

DOE has presented an accounting of its progress in spending its adult, dislocated worker and youth funds to both the City Council and the Workforce Investment Board Youth Council.

At a December meeting of the Council’s General Welfare Committee, Commissioner Betty Wu said the agency was on track to spend all of its 2001 funding, which expires on June 30^th of this year.  She said that DOE had spent 86% of adult funding (totaling 37.9 million), 42% of dislocated worker funding (total of $25.7 million), and 56% of administrative funding.  In addition, she said that $16 million was going to three one stop centers, (the existing center in Jamaica, as well as two newly-opened centers at 358 East 149^th Street in the Bronx and at 215 West 125^th Street in Harlem).  While none of the $96.7 million in 2002 funds have been spent yet, she told the Committee they were fully obligated.

Meanwhile, the Department has a large carry-over of more than $37.6 million of last year’s WIA youth funding portfolio - an amount exceeding its new PY 2002 allocation of $36.6 million.  DOE says that it has spent 65% of the allocation in the first five months of this year and that the balance has been obligated to contracts with existing providers.  According to a DOE WIA Youth Programs Fiscal Overview presented to the WIB Youth Council on January 14th, $26.5 million of the carry-over is in the In-School Youth programs and $11.1 million is in the Out-of-School Youth programs.

DOE Releases Proposals for Spending Remaining Youth Funds

DOE has released a concept paper to the Workforce Investment Board and to its Youth Council to determine the best uses of additional funds available in its Out-of-School Youth portfolio.  According to the agency, these funds are partially available due to a bonus it received from the Department of Labor for spending all of its PY 2000 youth funds.  The following proposals have been recommended by the Youth Council for a vote by the full WIB at its January 28^th meeting:

·          $150,000 in FY 2003, $600,000 in FY 2004 to fund two Administration for Children’s Services staff in each of the three current One Stop centers to provide a range of core and intensive services to youth up to age 24, including those leaving foster care, and to refer clients to employment and family services providers;

·          $2 million in FY 2003, $4 million in FY 2004 for a pilot program to re-engage youth ages 14 to 17 with the high school system through an intensive 25-hour a week, 2 to 12 months program of academic, computer and social skills development at CUNY and recruitment, assessment and follow-up services provided by CBOs; and

·          $1 million in FY 2003, $2 million in FY 2004 to continue funding for formerly federally funded Youth Opportunity Centers at STRIVE in Harlem and FEGS’ South Bronx site.

Two key Department of Employment staff have moved on--Chief of Staff, Jodi Kass and General Counsel, Alan Lebowitz.  David Farber, former Counsel of the NYC Economic Development Corporation’s Legal Division, replaces Lebowitz.  A new chief of staff has yet to be named. 

Meanwhile, the Coalition would like to welcome Miguel Almodovar, the new Assistant Commissioner for Youth Programs.  Mr. Almodovar is a seasoned program administrator, having overseen youth services as a director of youth programs at FEGS.

The City Council Youth Committee will hold a hearing on the Summer Youth Employment Program on January 31 at 10:00 am at City Hall.  The Committee wants to hear from current contractors about how the proposed program will affect their services.  The hearing will also enable providers to press for the preservation of Summer Youth Employment dollars.  DOE Commissioner Betty Wu told the WIB Youth Council at its January 14 meeting that these funds could be endangered under Mayor Bloomberg’s mandate that agencies slash another 6% from their budgets.  The Commissioner asked that the Youth Council create a subcommittee on Summer Youth Employment to examine funding and implementation issues more closely.

Proposals for the overhauled Summer Youth Employment Program were due January 3 under which 5,645 youth largely living in 29 community board areas will get jobs, down from 50,000 youth citywide, with youth in nearly half the city largely ineligible for as many as six years. 

The RFP caused tremendous upheaval.  Applicants were initially given a month to identify partners, negotiate program operations, and develop the detailed contracts reflecting those arrangements.  Many capable organizations found that the allotted funding was insufficient to cover administration costs and declined to apply.  The RFP was amended four times between its issuance and the deadline for submission.

While DOE has taken the welcome steps of expanding eligibility and eliminating an unfunded requirement to develop unsubsidized job slots, the Coalition has appealed to the City (1) to reduce the initial contract term to one year to allow for a full evaluation of the program after a summer of operation; and (2) to adopt a policy in which contractors have an opportunity to review proposed program models in the future, prior to the release of RFPs.

Esther Fuchs, Special Advisor to the Mayor for Governance and Strategic Planning, told a group of workforce development funders, advocates and policy experts last month that the Bloomberg Administration is committed to creating an effective workforce development strategy that helps TANF recipients move to livable wage jobs, identifies the needs of certain industry sectors, and meets the needs of New York’s diverse population.  “I think one of the biggest problems of welfare reform was not recognizing the need not just to get people off welfare, but to get them into jobs that allowed them to support their families at a wage that you could live on, ” she said.  Fuchs explained that half of the City’s welfare caseload has not graduated from high school and that a federal welfare reform law requiring work must also tie education and training into its goals.  “You simply cannot create an effective TANF workforce without giving individuals the skills that they need to get jobs which will not just give them employment, but will provide them jobs which will ultimately take them out of poverty and create self-sufficiency,” she said.  Fuchs acknowledged that there is no one-size-fits-all workforce development strategy and that a program that may work for one population may not work for another.  Finally, she said expanding the City’s One Stop system and creating a system of satellite centers around the One Stops in every borough are Administration priorities, as well as making timely contract payments while closely evaluating contracts to determine how effective contractors are at keeping people in the workforce. 

The Center for an Urban Future sponsored summit on December 9^th was the first in a series on future workforce development in NYC.  Participants developed a slate of recommendations by the summit’s close including: 1) strengthening the Workforce Investment Board, 2) creating explicit connections between workforce and economic development initiatives; 3) improving the link to small businesses; 4) rethinking performance measurements; and 5) building on the existing One Stop infrastructure.

Despite support by Coalition members and other advocates, Governor Pataki vetoed the Basic Education Bill, which would have allowed up to 16 hours per week of participation in basic education, including adult literacy, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and high school equivalency to count towards the welfare work requirements.

The veto surprised the bill’s sponsors and advocates because NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance Commissioner Brian Wing told participants at the State’s TANF Plan hearing last fall that it would likely pass.  The veto reportedly resulted from a last-minute memo by the Bloomberg Administration to the Governor that made the following objections: 1) Congress is debating TANF reauthorization proposals that would moot the bill’s provisions; 2) the bill prohibits a PA applicant or recipient from being assigned to work activities before completion of the employment plan; 3) the bill would “unreasonably hamper” the agency’s flexibility to assign recipients to “productive assignments.”

Should Congress reauthorize a version of TANF that allows PA recipients to receive education and training as a work activity, we hope to work with HRA to find acceptable mechanisms to expand the range and time for education and training.

Do you ever wonder why your views seem out of step with what is happening in Washington?  Like how could Congress cut training and education funds when people can’t qualify for existing jobs?  Clearly there is a disconnect between what we know works and governmental policy.

Part of the answer seems to lie in how our messages are framed, according to a series of Ford Foundation-funded studies conducted by Douglas Gould & Co.  The firm’s findings from an analysis of welfare and workforce development reporting by the nation’s major newspapers and television stations, as well as public opinion polling, have major ramifications for our work developing public and governmental support for workforce development.

The consultants found that a message that focuses on the need for a government hand-up to move people out of poverty into decently-paying jobs fails because it conflicts with core beliefs held by Americans – that each individual is responsible for his or her success or failure; that with hard work comes reward; that anyone can achieve the American dream; and that the goal is equal opportunity, not equal outcome.  “Stories about sympathetic, poor individuals who need a hand-up from government reinforce the dominant mindset that individuals create their own problems and have to find their own solutions,” they report.  Because most Americans see poverty as the result of individual decisions, government intervention is therefore seen as inappropriate in a free market economy. 

The consultants concluded that our message cannot be positioned about helping the poor.  To be effective, we need instead to frame policies for training within the context of the economy and jobs, and to link this issue to tomorrow’s prosperity.  As they put it, “[a]dvocates need to ask the question: how are we going to plan responsibly today, and make investments in society today, for an economy that works for all.”  For a copy of the report, Responsible Planning for the Future: An Analysis of Survey Research Regarding Communicating the Issues of Low-Wage Work, contact dgould@Douglasgould.com.

Jeff Jablow, CEO of Origin, Inc., and Bruce Herman, Executive Director of CWE’s Center for Workforce and Economic Development, shared strategies with Coalition members on December 3 for designing training programs that target growth industries.  Jablow emphasized the importance of understanding an industry’s needs by talking informally with companies, headhunters and boards of directors.  Additionally, providers must convince employers that they can be useful in improving the company’s bottom line by reducing employee turnover and hiring costs, instead of using provider altruism as a selling point.  “It (community services) is what has made you famous and fundable for the last 15 years.  It is wonderful to have that element, but it is irrelevant to the labor market,” Jablow said.  He also suggested using businesses with which providers already have good relationships to talk to new businesses with which providers want to form relationships.  Finally, Jablow said providers can seek loans from private foundations while building their sector relationships, since providers may not meet some employment milestones required for payment by their public contracts in the interim.

Herman recommended working with unions as part of a sector approach, since they have multi-employer relationships within a given sector and work with employers to create training opportunities for employees.  For example, opportunities exist for training providers to provide job readiness instruction to prepare clients to enter apprenticeship programs.  Programs can find apprenticeship openings for their clients online at http://www.jobsearch.org/NY and can also talk to unions about upcoming demand for employees in certain sectors such as health care, construction, building maintenance/janitorial, security and mass transit that are likely to see continued growth.

A new report by the Center for an Urban Future, Succeeding With Sectors, describes the advantages of a sector-based approach to workforce development and strategies including: 1) selecting industries that are likely to generate enough jobs and have a competitive advantage over other locales; 2) bringing representatives of client industries into the decision-making and training marketing/recruitment processes to get the industry invested; 3) committing senior management time to the initiative; 4) including labor organization representatives in shaping the initiative; and 5) being prepared to make a long-term investment in building the collaborations necessary to achieve results.  The report gives examples of how the sector approach has been used in NYC, including the development of specialized training for the garment industry.  Download the report at http://www.nycfuture.org/content/reports/report_view.cfm?repkey=95&search=1.    

The City’s unemployment rate reached 8% in November up from 7.8% in October, continuing an upward trend that only briefly reversed during the summer.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics noted that New York City’s unemployment rate was the second highest of any major metropolitan area.  According to the City Comptroller, New York lost a total of 4,300 jobs in November—6,000 in the private sector—while government payrolls rose by 1,700.  Greatest job losses occurred in transportation and public utilities (-2,000); trade (-1,600); finance, insurance and real estate (-1,000); services (-800), and manufacturing (-500).  However, business services added 1,100 jobs. 

A new Community Services Society report shows that more people who are looking for work are doing so because they lost their jobs, rather than because they quit their old jobs or are trying to re-enter the labor market as was the case earlier.  One Year On: Unemployment and Joblessness in Post September 2001 New York City reports that in the 12 months since September 2001, almost 58% of those looking for work had lost their previous jobs; while in 2000, that figure was less than 45%.  The study also found that New Yorkers are remaining unemployed for longer periods of time—since September 2001, about half of all job seekers stayed unemployed for more than three months.  The report is available at http://www.cssny.org/reports/databrief/databrief_no7.pdf.  

The U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration will award a total of $200 million to skills training programs designed to address skill shortages in high technology occupations in such fields as information technology, health care, and manufacturing.  Seventy-five percent of the funds will support local public-private partnerships comprised of one business or business-related nonprofit (e.g., trade association), and one CBO, higher education institution or labor union.  The application for the 75% of funds must be submitted by the WIB, but any partner may serve as the fiscal agent.  The remaining 25% of funds will support partnerships between at least two businesses or a related business nonprofit, and any community based, educational, or labor organization.  Training should prepare workers for positions with significant wage advancement opportunities.  For example, the Bay Area Video Coalition in San Francisco used an H-1B grant to train low-income individuals in web design, programming and system administration.  Participants earned on average $16,500 upon intake and $40,000 after completing an intensive 16-week, 480-hour training program.  The 75% funding stream requires a 50% match in cash or in kind; the 25% portion requires a 100% match in cash or in kind.  For application guidelines, visit http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/pdf/03-193.pdf or contact Ella Freeman, Grants Management Specialist, 202-693-3321. 

Deadline: Proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis through the end of 2003.  However, USDOL will convene its first proposal review panel on March 6, 2003 to consider applications submitted up until then.  The department will continue to meet throughout the year following receipt of a critical mass of applications.

The Community Food Resource Center (CFRC) staff told 30 Coalition members on December 18 how to refer clients to free tax filing sites in NYC, as well as claim the earned income tax credit (EITC) and other tax credits.  The EITC can put as much as $5,279 back into the pockets of some workers with children.  Public Assistance recipients and undocumented immigrants may also qualify for the EITC as long as they have earned income.  Last year CFRC’s outreach campaign helped low-income New Yorkers claim a total of $3.3 million in tax refunds. 

Providers can refer individuals with or without children, and who earn less than $35,000 a year, to free tax preparation sites located throughout the five boroughs by contacting toll-free hotlines in English (1-866-WAGEPLUS) or Spanish (1-866-DOLARES) to locate sites.  Organizations can also help promote the EITC and free tax filing assistance by distributing CFRC brochures and/or administering a simple pre-screening questionnaire to determine if clients are EITC-eligible.  To order brochures (available in English, Spanish, and Chinese) and/or use the pre-screening tool, please contact Monica Jimenez, CFRC, 212-894-8070.  For more information, visit http://www.cfrcnyc.org/media/EITChandout.pdf.    

The Coalition would like to extend a warm welcome to new members: Disabilities Network of New York City, Dress for Success New York, Grant Associates, Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island, Managed Work Services of New York, Universal Education Services, Inc. and Urban Dynamics Career and Employment Service.  They raise our membership to a total of 154.