About D4AD
Choices about education and job opportunities are among the most consequential decisions that individuals will make for their financial well-being. Yet, most people – especially low-income Americans from disadvantaged backgrounds – make these decisions with less data-driven insight than is the case when choosing a movie to watch at night. An estimated 13 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed, in many cases because they don’t know where to go to get the information they need to navigate the labor market. Opportunities are out there, but workers are simply not able to find them or to get the training needed to obtain them. This not only hurts the neediest in our society—low-income Americans from disadvantaged backgrounds—but also hurts overall economic growth as productive jobs and skill needs go unfilled.
The Data for the American Dream (D4AD) initiative aims to support innovative efforts to expand access to education and career data through partnerships that might include both public and private agencies and organizations. The goal of the D4AD initiative is to help students and jobseekers make better career decisions in a changing economy through data-driven information, and especially to help low-income, lower-skilled, underemployed, and unemployed Americans access better jobs and education opportunities.
D4AD Grantees
Colorado Workforce Development Council
Powered by a multi-agency, public-private data trust, My Colorado Journey will unite the existing fragmented ecosystem of data and allow for the creation of new datasets that connect services, programs, and education and employment opportunities.
Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget
Operating in partnership with Michigan’s Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, a regional workforce development system, and academic and research institutions, this project will focus on creating a suite of tools that will aid displace workers and unemployed or low-income individuals in making the transition to successful, sustainable employment.
New Jersey
Department of Labor
Targeted at customers of the state’s human services programs and other disadvantaged populations, New Jersey’s D4AD project will build an interactive website containing smart disclosure tools that will help jobseekers make informed decisions about training. Project partners include state agencies and organizations from the non-profit and private sectors and academia.
NEWS
The State of Michigan is looking for a new associate director of the Research and Analytics division within the Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives (LMISI). Check out the job posting for details.
Addressing Inequities brief now available! Visit the Resources page where you’ll find this brief that examines the particular economic, employment and educational challenges faced by Black and Latino workers, why it is imperative that workforce development systems address the needs of these workers, and how the Data for the American Dream initiative is tackling these challenges.
Impacting Your Audience brief now available! Head over to the Resources page where you’ll find this brief guide for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers seeking to develop processes for increasing the use, effectiveness, and success of jobseeker tools.
Check out NJ D4AD’s Medium blog Engineering Matters: An Interview with Team D4AD’s Lead Engineer Anne LoVerso to learn more about the team’s user-centered approach.
The Communicating with Vulnerable Workers About Resources, Training, and Improving Job Prospects brief synthesizes existing research about how to communicate effectively with low-income, lower-skilled, unemployed, and underemployed workers. It reviews challenges and strategies about communicating with these workers and suggests the implications for workforce agencies in connecting with these workers.
@D4ADream
Jobseekers should not have to guess which skills and credentials meet their needs. This complexity is one reason why we make the case for linking online tools-- that make actionable, quality education & career data available--w/ support from case managers & other intermediaries.
Our new report estimates there are 967,734 #credentials in the U.S., highlighting the need to develop widespread adoption of a standard approach for describing, comparing, and evaluating credentials and competencies. http://bit.ly/3p0QpII #CredentialTransparency
Excited to learn more about the five blueprints! More information about the free event here: https://nationalfund.org/events/advancing-workforce-equity/
Join us on Tuesday January 26, 2021 from 11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern for the Advancing Workforce Equity: A Blueprint for Regional Action. Learn how five cities in our network plan to catalyze action around building a more equitable workforce!
https://nationalfund.org/events/advancing-workforce-equity/
The State of Michigan is looking for a new associate director of the Research and Analytics division within the Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives (LMISI). Check out the job posting here: https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/michigan/jobs/2943335-0/associate-director
It's great seeing our grantees--NJ, CO, and MI--highlighted in Credential Engine's roadmap for their activities that exemplify state action toward credential transparency!
.@credengine’s new roadmap details actions state policymakers can take to increase credential transparency. Individuals need actionable and comparable data to choose programs that will help them meet their goals. https://bit.ly/36WHCRa
OUR PARTNERS
