RCI - Workforce Constituency Development










					Our Role \| Congregation-Based Organizing \| Rural Grassroots Organizing \| Workforce Constituency Development RCI’s third programmatic area is aimed at developing what we call “workforce constituencies” composed of new partnerships among communities and institutions that can increase workforce readiness, create good jobs, and maximize community benefits from economic development. The San Joaquin Valley consistently faces high unemployment rates due to its substantial population of under-qualified workers and the resulting inability to create or attract living-wage jobs that require a more educated and skilled workforce. In addition, many of our communities do not have the capacity to translate economic development investment into a sustainable process of human and community development. In collaboration with labor, government, community, and business interests, RCI is working to prepare people for employment through a partnership funded by the Fresno County Workforce Investment Board. RCI is also a founding partner of the Valley Economic Leadership Institute, which is committed to a fair regional economy based on a collaborative, accountable approach to economic development in the Valley. Following are some of the activities and accomplishments for the past 12 months: Partnered with the Fresno, Madera, Tulare, Kings Counties Central Labor Council and ProPath, Inc., to begin operating three one-stop job centers in rural Kerman, Mendota and Reedley on July 1, 2003 with a target of 660 job placements by July 2004; In partnership with the Central Labor Council and U.C. Berkeley, applied for and received an OSHA grant to provide training on workplace violence prevention for businesses throughout the Valley; Entered into a formal agreement with the San Joaquin Valley Federal Interagency Task Force to be the community organizing partner for a Central Valley Initiative aimed at economic, community, workforce and civic leadership development in rural communities in the west side of the Valley; Established a formal relationship with the California Partnership for Working Families to begin building local capacities for producing measurable community benefits from economic development; Partnered with faculty from the College of Social Sciences at CSU Fresno to begin the development of culturally competent curricula for economic, social, and environmental literacy that can be used for building community leadership and organization.