Changing lives through opportunity for a career: Deborah Vesy Systems Change Champion Award finalists re-think workforce development to give people impacted by poverty a leg up

Cleveland, Ohio – October 16, 2023 05:05 AM

By Kimberly Bonvisutto for Crain's Content Studio

About the Award

When the systems that enable working families and individuals to live healthy, happy lives no longer function, change is needed. This work isn’t simple, but several regional organizations are devoted to updating, restructuring and revitalizing the systems that allow people to thrive despite the challenges they’ve faced.

To honor these groups and the vital work they pursue, the Deaconess Foundation established the Deborah Vesy Systems Change Champion Award in 2021. The award honors Deborah Vesy, who served as the Foundation’s president and CEO for 18 years and retired in 2020.

“The purpose of the award is to ensure the transformative work she championed continues for many years,” said Cathy Belk, president and CEO of the Deaconess Foundation, a private foundation committed to helping those impacted by poverty build careers which sustain themselves and their families. “By highlighting systems change and innovation initiatives within the workforce ecosystem, we want our community to see not only the benefits to each individual impacted but also the long-term, sustainable changes and benefits. These improvements will help job seekers and employers for years to come.”

Selected by Deaconess Foundation from a pool of applications, the winner of the award receives an unrestricted $50,000 grant.

Winner: New Bridge

As a trauma-informed, social/emotional learning center, New Bridge provides community-based training to help students identify and pursue educational and career pathways that lead to personal well-being, health equity and family-sustaining wages.
 

Through a partnership with University Hospitals, New Bridge created a medical assistant program and training model for incumbent workers that also provides resources in a positive environment.

President and CEO Bethany Friedlander called it an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for individuals to advance their careers while still working. The partnership promotes systems change and increases equity through a needs assessment, outlining specific interventions, resources and support services required to help students achieve their goals.

“What we know, ultimately, is problems don’t end with raises and new jobs. People still continue to have problems with transportation, housing, food insecurity,” she said. “Students are able to voice those ongoing concerns in a safe place.”

The medical assistant program just graduated its third cohort of students with a 100% passage rate on the national certification exam. The success of the program, which has helped 79 students to date, is leading to an expansion into a licensed practical nurse program that will begin in October with a pilot of 19 students.

As a healthcare sector intermediary, New Bridge brings employers to the table to share and replicate best practices. Friedlander said the collaboration rose to a new level post-Covid, with employers exploring new pathways and doubling down on the importance of keeping quality employees. For the first time, she said, the work is about policy and procedures and looking more holistically at the workforce.

Finalist: Youth Opportunities Unlimited

Fixing the complexities of the workforce ecosystem is the goal of Youth Opportunities Unlimited (Y.O.U.), a nonprofit workforce development organization that works to put youth on a path to economic self-sufficiency.
 
“Y.O.U. is ultimately about improving the community by taking on systemic racism and the pervasive cycle of poverty, transforming youth lives in the process,” said President and CEO Craig Dorn. “The most logical way to address those two issues is through the workforce. The four pillars of Y.O.U. programs are job readiness training, career exploration activities, coaching and mentoring, and paid work experience. With a focus on 14- to 24-year-olds, Y.O.U. partners with other organizations in deep and meaningful ways, to share expertise across a broader base through a shared staffing model.”
 
The model creates synergy of comparable missions and goals while being cost effective with resources. One example of that model is Y.O.U.’s partnership with Open Doors Academy (ODA)’s afterschool program. Y.O.U. retains a full-time staff member who facilitates its Job Readiness Training curriculum for high school students enrolled in ODA’s afterschool program. The partnership, which splits the cost of the employee, has brought more than 200 additional young people under the Y.O.U. umbrella of services.
 
“The model creates a sustainable and scalable framework to positively impact students,” Dorn said. “Y.O.U. approaches systems change through advocacy by helping legislators and elected officials understand how they can change the rules of engagement to better serve their constituents.”

Y.O.U. congratulates the other finalists: the Northeast Ohio Worker Center and the Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation.