MLC Chair’s Initiative on Workforce: Goal of recent state-led initiatives is to remove barriers to workforce participation
Identify a top workforce challenge in your community, and we’ll provide you with the funding to address it. That is the idea behind North Dakota’s $15 million Regional Workforce Impact Program, first created by legislators during a special session in 2021 (SB 2345) and now providing grants across eight distinct workforce planning regions of the state.
One common theme during the first two rounds of grant funding: the need for more child care. A majority of state-financed projects under the program (the state requires a 25 percent local match), and about three-quarters of the total dollars, is for the construction of new or the expansion of existing child care centers. This investment is on top of other new spending in North Dakota to expand access to child care, including the $66 million appropriated under last year’s HB 1540.
It also reflects a broader trend in workforce policy in the Midwest. States are looking at more than just the traditional strategies of job training, educational attainment, out-of-state recruitment and upskilling; they’re also trying to eliminate barriers to workforce participation.
Child care has topped the list of priorities, with funding in this area often being directly linked to workforce issues. In Iowa, for instance, the state is now offering grants to businesses that offer or expand child care options as a benefit to their employees.
In Wisconsin, a Workforce Innovation Grant Program has funded several regional collaborations to address barriers that limit a person’s opportunity to participate in workforce training or to secure and hold a job. Grants have gone to local transportation projects that help individuals get to and from work, home and a child care center through the use of micro-transit services, volunteer drivers, local taxi companies and a FlexRide program in the Milwaukee area. The program also has made infrastructure investments to allow for the construction of an affordable-housing complex for workers near a major employer in northern Wisconsin.
In early 2023, the Michigan Legislature passed a measure (SB 7) that included $15 million to launch the Barrier Removal and Employment Success Expansion grant program. Designed to help low-income workers, the program’s wrap-around services range from transportation, child care and housing supports, to help with the purchase of work tools and equipment or legal services to expunge criminal records.
The workforce programs in Michigan, North Dakota and Wisconsin have been supported by the American Rescue Plan Act’s Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund. Whether they continue will depend on decisions made by state legislatures and governors.
Workforce Innovation and Transformation is the CSG Midwestern Legislative Conference Chair’s Initiative of Ohio Sen. Bill Reineke. In support of this initiative, a series of articles on this topic are appearing this year in Stateline Midwest.