CT gets ‘creative’ with ARPA-funded efforts to expand labor pool

This story has been updated.

Employment peaked in Connecticut in November 2019, with close to 1.87 million people working. But the COVID-19 pandemic and a wave of retirements among members of the baby-boom generation have fundamentally changed the American labor force. 

In this state, the number of working people has hovered around 50,000 below its 2019 apex for over a year now. The number of unfilled jobs stands at 90,000.

Recognizing these trends, Connecticut’s Office of Workforce Strategy — established in late 2020 — has deployed a range of efforts to expand the state’s labor pool, training new entrants for careers in skilled fields and placing them in jobs. OWS has focused on reaching populations with historically low labor force participation rates such as formerly incarcerated people, veterans, individuals with disabilities, immigrants and refugees, and other groups. 

“The intention really was to be able to reach into those underserved populations, and we believe we are doing that,” Tracy Ariel, a program director with OWS, said. 

That work isn’t easy — or cheap. One program has made some headway.

In mid-2022, OWS launched the $70 million CareerConneCT initiative, paid for with federal American Rescue Plan funding, which sought to train and place 6,000 adults in skilled positions in manufacturing, health care, information technology and other advanced fields. OWS awarded multimillion-dollar grants to 19 grassroots agencies around the state, directing them to use the funding both for job skills instruction as well as safety net services for their enrollees such as housing and food assistance, transportation and child care. 

The agencies also must work closely with local employers to ensure there are open jobs with skill requirements that match the training they offer. Ariel said that’s the program’s main challenge because employers’ needs tend to change.

After just over a year in operation, as of the end of last year, the programs had enrolled more than 3,200 individuals and placed just over 1,200 in jobs.

According to OWS data, nearly two-thirds of the CareerConneCT participants so far have been men. More than 60% are between 18 and 34. At least 31% are Black and 24% identified as Hispanic or Latino — though 30% of respondents declined to answer the question about race/ethnicity. 

“What makes CareerConneCT different than other grants is that there really was a focus on identifying those strong community-based training partners,” Ariel said. “It made training more accessible to everybody.”

She said it’s also unique in offering “generous” funding for supportive services, making it easier for participants to enroll in and complete a training program. “It’s providing those things that would create a barrier to somebody being able to be trained or retrained.”

‘Everything is connected’

By funding partner agencies with established roots in underserved communities, CareerConneCT is trying to draw a wider range of populations into the state’s workforce training system. And by encouraging agencies to use the funds for supportive services, those training programs have become more comprehensive.

Bridgeport-based Career Resources Inc., one of a handful of “reentry centers” in Connecticut that help people find jobs and obtain services as they leave incarceration, received a $5.3 million CareerConneCT grant to support a workforce training program called WE RISE Together. So far, 253 participants in WE RISE have completed certificates in retail, food service, construction and other industries; of those, 215 have obtained jobs.

“The premise around all of this was to eliminate a lot of the barriers that these folks are presenting with,” said Rob Hebert, chief strategic officer for the organization. That might start with helping them find a place to live, providing clothing and gift cards for food and covering incidental expenses like obtaining work boots for a job. 

“We’ve put in place services that sideline those barriers — put them out of sight, out of mind long enough so someone can get training, get certifications, have a safe place for the time being to lay their head at night and formulate a plan, with staff, to move forward with their life,” Hebert said. 

Carlos Garcia, a WE RISE participant, came home April 10, 2023. He saw a flyer for CRI’s 3-week customer service and sales certification program and signed up. Within a week of completing the training, he started working at Stop & Shop. 

Garcia remained employed — even earning the store’s “Employee of the Month” award — but he continued to seek further credentials through WE RISE, including training in occupational safety and CPR.

“I was working and I was like, I’ve got to keep myself focused, I’ve got to keep myself busy,” Garcia said. 

CRI put Garcia in touch with another program called Reentry Survivors, where he learned how to develop a business plan and earned a scholarship to the University of Bridgeport’s business school. Garcia recently registered that business, a reentry services program called Project HOPE, which stands for “helping other people evolve.” 

In New Haven, the Havenly Fellowship trains immigrant and refugee women for jobs in commercial kitchens and other fields. It also offers help for those interested in starting their own businesses or enrolling in higher education. The program includes classroom instruction in English and digital and financial literacy, and fellows are paired with career coaches to help with job placement. 

Camila Guiza-Chavez, co-executive director at Havenly, said the CareerConneCT grant “has been transformative for the organization.” Havenly was able to expand its fellowship to serve 26 participants a year and add workshops ranging from career readiness to healing from trauma. The program also includes dance and art classes, and participants make field trips to the shoreline, local orchards and other attractions. 

Many of the Havenly fellows are referred to the program by regional refugee agencies, and they’re processing traumatic experiences while also trying to obtain work and settle into a brand new life in a foreign place, Guiza-Chavez said. Beyond the job training, “our overall mission is expansive,” she said. “It’s also to help women feel like they’re not alone, reduce isolation, build solidarity among women of different cultures, language groups and nationalities that are experiencing very similar conditions here in the U.S.”

“Everything is connected,” Guiza-Chavez said. “Helping women to feel more confident in themselves, more able to have a sense of safety, to be able to dream of what they want to do next — all of that is a process that in order to do meaningfully takes time.”

‘Changing perceptions, opening doors’

Aside from providing more support services, CareerConneCT also boosted funding for job placement staff and offered simpler eligibility requirements for participants.

That has served to streamline the process “to get people through the training much faster and out into the workplace,” said Cathy Awwad, executive director of the Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board, one of the grant recipients. 

Around the time CareerConneCT launched, there was “this huge disconnect” between the volume of workers employers wanted to hire and the number of people willing or able to fill those jobs, Awwad said.

“That now really seems to be resolving itself,” she said. “We’re seeing a number of job seekers: youth and young adults looking for their first career, young adults and older adults looking for something different, something new, something more challenging.”

“But absolutely never has there been a lack of employer engagement where they’re looking to us to fill their workforce needs,” Awwad said. “That started during the pandemic.”

Several CareerConneCT partners have expanded training programs or developed new ones in response to changing industry needs. 

The explosion of federally funded infrastructure projects, for example, is driving up the need for new workers in the building trades. Connecticut State Building Trades Training Institute, another CareerConneCT partner, has trained 572 participants and placed 469 in registered apprenticeships since September 2022.

“From where I sit, we are getting very busy,” Executive Director Yolanda Rivera said. 

The programs include instruction in “construction math,” OSHA and CPR, taught by union tradespeople, as well as a welding program for female participants called Women Can Weld.

“Because we’re part of an established system, we’re able to give very comprehensive knowledge to those that are interested in entering the construction field and help them understand what they’re getting into,” Rivera said. “That way, you’re also increasing the retention rate.”

Charter Oak State College, a public online college, used $1.4 million in funding from CareerConneCT to put together three courses of training in “revenue cycle management” — the financial processes behind registering patients, billing and collecting payment for health care services. The college developed the program in response to a need identified by a large regional employer, Hartford HealthCare, which was having a hard time filling entry-level jobs in that department. 

“Being a fully online college, we obviously can’t do things that require hands-on assistance, like [Certified Nursing Assistant] training or those types of things,” said Nancy Taylor, workforce development director with Charter Oak. “But something like revenue cycle management is really a great program to do online.”

Charter Oak provided laptops to all participants, paid them each a stipend for completing the course and offered academic and career counseling “to make sure that everybody has all the right tools they need because everyone’s starting at a different place,” Taylor said. 

“CareerConneCT allowed all of us to be creative,” she said.

Windsor-based Efficiency For All trains people from economically distressed communities in green jobs — specifically, the skills needed to evaluate homes and buildings for energy efficiency. With CareerConneCT funds, the nonprofit has offered its classes and certificates in subjects like air leakage, HVAC performance, health and safety hazards and lead renovation and repair to nearly 60 participants so far. 

The program consists of six weeks in the classroom and six weeks of paid on-the-job training.

“What’s really amazing is that we pair them with a mentor partner who is an expert in the field already, and they get to be right alongside with them and learn how to become that lead,” said Associate Director Lillian Brough. “They’re technically like entry-level assistant technicians.”

There have been cases where employers are hesitant to hire individuals from certain populations, Awwad said. For workforce development programs, she said, the education part is often deployed in both directions — employee and employer. 

“We have some programming that allows us to give a temporary job coach to an employer so that the employee can get in and get the supports they need for a period of time to adjust to the workplace, and then, you know, be a good productive employee for that employer,” she said.

“So really, a lot of it is changing — perceptions, opening doors, and kind of redefining how this works.”

Continuing connections

Part of the $70 million in federal ARPA funding went toward developing an online portal for job seekers, which matched people who registered with one of the 19 programs depending on their interests and location. Ariel said nearly 20,000 people have signed up in the portal, but far fewer completed the online assessment to be directed into one of the programs.

Most of the agencies said they took part in active recruiting within their networks, as well as local Chambers of Commerce, American Job Centers and workforce boards.

The CareerConneCT grant program ends next year, and Ariel said OWS is encouraging its partner organizations to look to other federal programs, community-based organizations, private businesses and philanthropic funds for ongoing support. She added that OWS hopes to be able to continue supporting the online portal, “but, you know, ARPA was going to end.”

Guiza-Chavez of Havenly said the organization hopes its growing cafe and catering business can help it get closer to self-sustaining. Before the CareerConneCT grant, roughly 25% to 30% of Havenly’s operations were covered by food sales; that has grown to 50%.

But for Career Resources Inc., which also received about $1.9 million in ARPA funding from the city of Bridgeport, the end of federal pandemic relief programs could mean it’s no longer able to support returning citizens. “That, I will tell you, keeps me up at night,” Hebert said. “Without a real commitment from the state of Connecticut to help the formerly incarcerated, we’re just going to go back to what we had before — a prison sentence followed by a period of supervision, then nothing. Back on the hamster wheel.”

Correction

An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Career Resources Inc. received $200 million in ARPA funding from the city of Bridgeport. It received about $1.9 million.