Support Job Training? Let Senate Appropriators Hear Your Voice

On June 12, the Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to take up the bill that provides funding for programs administered by the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education.

These funds impact the Workforce Investment Act’s (WIA) job training programs for youth, adult and dislocated workers–many of which are also leveraging Goodwill funding streams.

We need your support to urge Senate appropriators to support job training funding.

In 2011, approximately 125,000 people were referred to local Goodwill agencies for employment services through WIA. By investing 82 percent of its privately raised revenues into mission-based programs, we are doing all we can to supplement the federal investment in job training, employment services.

At Goodwill, we help people such as Kim Kershaw, who came to our Columbus, OH, agency unemployed and caring for an ailing mother. In the video below, watch Kim share how she first came to Goodwill and how agency staff helped her turn her talent for health care into a career as a nurse.

Federal spending is under an intense microscope this year; therefore, appropriators are hard pressed to find savings wherever they can.

In 2002, when the unemployment rate was 5.8 percent, combined funding for WIA’s youth, adult and dislocated worker streams was more than $3.67 billion. Ten years later, combined FY 2012 funding plus a new Workforce Innovation Fund is $2.65 billion – more than $1 billion or 25 percent less than in 2002. This comes at a time when unemployment remains stubbornly high at more than 8 percent.

Senate appropriators need to hear your support for the workforce system from local Goodwill agencies’ staff and CEOs.