On May 21, 2019, the Center for Universal Education and the Future of the Middle Class Initiative at Brookings co-hosted a symposium titled “Building the workforce of the future: Resilient people and places.” Policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and thought leaders from the government, corporat

Although today’s U.S. labor market is strong and unemployment is low, many working-age American remain marginalized.

This webinar explored strategies for leveraging data to support college and career readiness and success (CCRS) goals for all students, with special emphasis on students in foster care.

A New Hampshire-based college with a large online enrollment plans to open a new operations center in downtown Tucson in early 2020 that will eventually employ up to 350 people.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a proposed rule Wednesday to improve its Section 3 Program, which requires funding recipients to employ low-income people and business.

A brief to help state and local agencies identify opportunities to align and leverage policies, programs, and funding across the three laws to support the education-to-workforce pipeline; a workbook to facilitate cross-agency conversations to identify and plan for alignment opportunities across ESSA

Federal safety net programs are intended to protect the most vulnerable Americans—such as the elderly, people with severe disabilities and young children.

Because mental health conditions can negatively affect employment, people with these conditions make up a large share of federal disability program participants.

The employment social enterprise (ESE) model can provide an opportunity to create a financially viable business that helps individuals with employment barriers become integrated into the labor force. This research studied eight ESEs.

The venture is a small yet innovative player in a growing number of nonprofits developing new models for work force training. Their overarching goal is upward mobility for low-income Americans and the two-thirds of workers without four-year college degrees.

In 2016, the health system teamed with Spartanburg Community College and the National Center for Construction Education and Research, a nonprofit that provides global training and certification. Together, the three entities began offering construction skills training to area residents.

One out of every 10 young people between the ages of 16 and 24 is neither working nor in school. These “disconnected” young people face an uphill battle finding work and are at risk of economic hardship well into adulthood.

In many cities, low-income residents live far from available jobs, and employers can’t find people to fill open positions.

As the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) prioritizes programs to help households receiving rental assistance achieve economic self-sufficiency, researchers, policymakers, and advocates debate the utility of work requirements as an effective pathway toward economic self-sufficiency

When we stereotype or lazily assume low-wage workers to be “low skill,” it reinforces an often unspoken and pernicious view that they lack intelligence and ambition, maybe even the potential to master “higher-order” skilled work.

This report identifies services that help low-income individuals and households achieve upward economic mobility and explores how affordable housing providers offer them. We begin by presenting key economic mobility concepts and definitions.

A whole host of factors — such as friends, housing and transportation — affect a person’s health and how much they need the social safety net. It’s time the government’s big health insurance programs took this reality into account, some lawmakers and policymakers are starting to argue.

To explore the benefits and challenges of rapid re-housing support services, How Housing Matters asked a group of experts to weigh in.

As the Trump Administration continues to encourage states to take Medicaid coverage away from people who don’t meet a work requirement, a new report describes Montana’s promising alternative: a workforce promotion program that targets state resources toward reducing barriers to work.

Recent research shows that social safety net programs benefit everyone.

The Enhanced Transitional Jobs Demonstration (ETJD), funded by the Employment and Training Administration of the U.S.

In contrast to the portrayal of homelessness as affecting people with behavioral health problems or low employment capacity, cycles of homelessness could reflect job shifts that bring a household in or out of poverty.

Some community colleges have found innovative partnerships with their public housing authorities may help combat student homelessness.

In 17 years, the Family Independence Initiative has enrolled 3,000 families — four people per household on average — and is operating in 14 different cities across the country. Now the initiative is making a move into 10 neighborhoods across Chicago.

Our initial report—which followed participants around the country over three years—found, among other things, that Year Up increased participants’ average quarterly earnings by more than 50 percent.