In 2016, the Annie E. Casey Foundation engaged Management Assistance Group (MAG) (now Change Elemental) to learn more about which factors prevent collaboration across immigration and workforce development sectors, and limit immigrants’ access to workforce development opportunities. We set out to understand this dynamic, guided by two core questions:
- Where in the country are immigrants being best served by the workforce development system?
- What conditions give rise to these bright spots and enable greater collaboration across immigration and workforce development sectors?
We began to search for bright spots—examples of where immigration and workforce sectors were effectively collaborating to grant immigrant communities access to workforce development opportunities. We also explored the conditions giving rise to these examples. Rather than look at the work of individual organizations in isolation from the broader system in which they operate, we set out to understand which systemic conditions were key to fostering greater collaboration.
Our research and findings are detailed in the report, “Advancing Equity in America: Linking Immigrant Communities to the Workforce Investment System.”