For many years individuals with disabilities have been less likely to be employed than their working age nondisabled peers. The demographic profile for disability cuts across race, gender, age, and geography. Individuals with disabilities are more likely to be unbanked (30%) and to underutilize tax provisions because of a lack of knowledge about the Earned Income Tax Credit, or due to fear of losing important benefits such as health care. They are almost three times as likely to live in poverty as any other group. The Workforce Investment Act, which became effective on July 1, 2000, has opened doors to unprecedented opportunities for jobseekers with disabilities to receive assistance and intensive services to match abilities and interests with employer needs. The U.S. Department of Labor's Offi ce of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), also advances opportunities for jobseekers with disabilities by providing national leadership in policy development that works to enhance employment profitability and advance economic self-sufficiency. ODEP accomplishes this through partnering with strategic stakeholders in asset development, developing research and training materials and financial education, and testing best practices through national policy demonstration projects. Th is white paper is an example of ODEP's research into best practices in asset development. New strategies are being pioneered across the country that address both the challenges of advancing employment options for individuals with disabilities and moving forward with options to advance their economic security and self-sufficiency. Collaboration between One-Stop Career Centers, the Disability Program Navigators (DPNs, ) and Asset Building Coalitions are reaching out to low-income workers with disabilities to help them to utilize the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), financial education, and other savings and asset building options. DPNs are staff in over 40 states who help job seekers with disabilities navigate the local and state public systems of services to find the help they need to become employed and reach economic self-sufficiency. ETA and the Social Security Administration (SSA) jointly fund, implement, and evaluate this initiative designed to improve the workforce investment system's capacity to service customers with disabilities and employers. During the past three years, through a national campaign being led by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the National Disability Institute (NDI), individuals with disabilities have been encouraged to think about a better economic future that begins with participation in the workforce. The campaign, called "The Real Economic Impact Tour," is raising expectations about the value of work, saving, and asset building. This report focuses on three cities: Detroit, Jacksonville and Milwaukee, and the tie-in between the workforce development system and advancing self-sufficiency for individuals with disabilities. These three diverse cities, in partnership with their local free tax preparation and asset building coalition and the Workforce Development Centers, DPNs, and/or One Stop Career Centers, have partnered to educate and assist people with disabilities to:

This report is the product of a project called Investing in People, in which the National Conference of Legislatures and Jobs for the Future helped five states as they tried to develop and implement work force preparation and training strategies to meet the challenge of a competitive global economy. The report is organized in six sections. The introductory section explores the concepts of workplace modernization and work force development and suggests strategies for a new system of work force development. The second section summarizes the recommendations of several national organizations, including the Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, the National Alliance of Business, and America's Choice Legislative Coalition. In the third section, the following principles for work force system design are listed: lifelong learning, school-to-work transition, skills standards, assessment and certification, developing high-performance workplaces, incentives, national and state employment and training boards, local employment and training boards, coordinated funding, one-stop shopping, case management, labor market information, market competition, and standards and outcome measures. The fourth section contains case studies of human resource delivery systems in New Jersey, Oregon, and New York, with information on the enabling legislation, structure and governance mechanisms, scope of delivery systems, and accountability measures. The following key policy considerations are examined in the fifth section: the structure and process of design and implementation, the political environment, private sector involvement, scope of integration, regulatory environment, financing issues, flexibility, portability, accountability, and capacity building. A short concluding section and a recommended reading list citing 14 items complete the report. (KC)

A roadmap for how we can rebuild America's working class by transforming workforce education and training. The American dream promised that if you worked hard, you could move up, with well-paying working-class jobs providing a gateway to an ever-growing middle class. Today, however, we have increasing inequality, not economic convergence. Technological advances are putting quality jobs out of reach for workers who lack the proper skills and training. In Workforce Education, William Bonvillian and Sanjay Sarma offer a roadmap for rebuilding America's working class. They argue that we need to train more workers more quickly, and they describe innovative methods of workforce education that are being developed across the country.

Not Just Getting By chronicles groundbreaking thinking and research on new and innovative workforce development initiatives to create flexible and collaborative programs and policies. Author Mary Gatta builds on extensive interviews and focus groups with 128 women enrolled in a U.S. Department of Labor pilot program in New Jersey focusing on how they attain education through online courses while working, raising their children, and dealing with the many demands on their lives. The book addresses three main areas: It engages current policy debates demonstrating how online learning and other forms of flexible learning opportunities will reorganize the way federal and state governments deliver skills training, especially working poor single mothers, within the context of Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF), the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and other legislated workforce development programs in the 21st century. It explores the development of the program and qualitatively details the experiences of the women as they spend a year receiving online learning courses. It explores how to rethink workforce development so that online learning for low wage workers and other innovative programs can be successful. As both a piece of scholarship and a case study in successful policy development, this text will be a useful supplement for courses in the sociology of labor, women's studies, or adult education. It will also serve policymakers and others who are looking for a model of training and skills delivery that actually works.

The strengths and abilities children develop from infancy through adolescence are crucial for their physical, emotional, and cognitive growth, which in turn help them to achieve success in school and to become responsible, economically self-sufficient, and healthy adults. Capable, responsible, and healthy adults are clearly the foundation of a well-functioning and prosperous society, yet America's future is not as secure as it could be because millions of American children live in families with incomes below the poverty line. A wealth of evidence suggests that a lack of adequate economic resources for families with children compromises these children's ability to grow and achieve adult success, hurting them and the broader society. A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty reviews the research on linkages between child poverty and child well-being, and analyzes the poverty-reducing effects of major assistance programs directed at children and families. This report also provides policy and program recommendations for reducing the number of children living in poverty in the United States by half within 10 years.