St. Nicks Alliance serves 2,200 New Yorkers every year with workforce development services, mostly from North and Central Brooklyn.

The pandemic left low wage workers more exposed to labor abuse and precarity. It also shined the light on longstanding gaps in the social services meant to support New York’s working families. These are two key takeaways from recent reports commissioned by CWE’s Astoria Worker Project.

30,000 New Yorkers are in a stable career and able to support themselves and their families, thanks to Jobs to Build On (JtBO), a program funded by the City Council and administered by the Consortium for Worker Education. JtBO funds job training and placement programs at dozens of community organizations that serve workers across the five boroughs. The program reached the job placement milestone this year.

In March 2020, spiking COVID-19 cases and social distancing requirements forced CWE partners to close their classrooms. These community organizations did not stop serving New York workers, however. CWE and our partners quickly transitioned our services online, creating digital bridges to stay in touch, and continuing to provide crucial workforce training.

CWE created the Immigration Protection Group (IPG) seven years ago to coordinate a response among New York unions and community organizations to the anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration. In the succeeding years, the organizations have adjusted their services to meet new challenges and needs facing immigrants. When New York City became the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, immigrant communities were often the hardest hit and IPG partners were leading relief efforts.

When COVID-19 came to New York, the Jobs to Build On network quickly got to work.

In 2021, the Consortium for Worker Education brought together community organizations around the city to outreach to young people in high-risk neighborhoods, bring them into job training programs, and place them into careers.

Today, we are releasing The Consortium for Worker Education Responds to the COVID-19 Pandemic, a compendium that brings together the work of our network to respond to the pandemic.

CWE's Astoria Worker Project celebrated the graduation of our first cohort of students from Worker Cooperative 101 in February.

On February 27th, Bronx Community College’s Automotive Technology program was recognized for their Workforce Development and NY Mechanic Apprentice Program, a project partially funded by and run in conjunction with CWE and our labor partners.

The historic migration of new residents from around the world to New York City continues and the CWE network of community organizations is welcoming and supporting these new New Yorkers.

Over the last year, the CWE network of community organizations and unions have supported the workers being left behind in NYC’s uneven economic recovery.

Unemployment rates are at historic lows, but one group of workers still struggles to find a job. Many companies refuse to hire workers who have spent time in prison, leaving them either unemployed, exploited by unscrupulous employers, or forced to turn to unlawful activities to make money.

The historic migration of people to New York City continues and community organizations are rising to the task of welcoming these new neighbors and helping them succeed.

More than two decades ago, a coalition of unions came together to advocate for policies to support working families. One of their greatest successes has been the Consortium for Worker Education’s Child Care Facilitated Enrollment Project, which created a streamlined process and new subsidies to support child care programs for working parents. Today, it remains a life-changing program for many New York workers and their children.

New York is welcoming a historic migration of asylum seekers and the Consortium for Worker Education’s Immigration Protection Group is rising to the challenge of supporting these new New Yorkers.

The New York City Council is reinvesting in job training, with restored funding for three key programs — Jobs to Build On, Worker Service Centers, and Immigration Protection Group — in the city budget passed earlier this summer.

Phipps Neighborhoods, one of the newest Jobs to Build On partners, serves the largely Black and Latino communities of the Bronx and launched a new job training program, Career Network: Building Services, with funding from Jobs to Build On.

Immigrant workers often face wage theft, dangerous workplaces, and union busting -- all violations of labor law regardless of immigration status. Fear of retaliation, however, means that these crimes often go unaddressed.

The City Council plays a critical role in funding high-quality job training and placement programs for New York workers. Now, it's easier than ever for Council Members to connect their constituents to programs in their neighborhood.