Membership
Our work is driven by the collaborative efforts of urban workforce development boards (WDBs) across the Midwest, working together to strengthen communities and expand economic opportunity.
What is MUS Membership?
Midwest Urban Strategies offers a unique collaborative network that connects urban workforce development organizations across the Midwest, fostering innovative solutions and sharing best practices to enhance regional economic growth.
By joining our organization, members gain access to a wealth of resources, including expert insights, funding opportunities, and powerful partnerships, all aimed at driving meaningful change in their communities.
Together, we are dedicated to creating a more skilled and prosperous workforce, making Midwest Urban Strategies the ideal partner for organizations committed to making a difference in the urban landscape.
Our Member Organizations
ASPYR Workforce Innovation
The Workforce Development Board of Central Ohio serves the city of Columbus and Franklin county. The Board serves the residents and employers in their workforce region, connecting them to training and supportive services and coordinating the planning and convening of workforce system partners from throughout the region. Operating in a collaborative service delivery model, the Board contracts with ResCare to convene three trusted workforce system partners to deliver services to job seekers and incumbent workers. Those system partners include the Urban League, Goodwill, and Jewish Family Services.
Center of Workforce Innovations
Center of Workforce Innovations is a multi-management nonprofit workforce development organization with its finger on the pulse of employment, education, and economic development. They are a catalyst for community and business investment in workforce, education, and economic development building and enhancing collective capacity to succeed in a new global economy.
Understanding challenges associated with aligning workforce skills to meet the needs of employers, and elevating talent for emerging next generation jobs, CWI is poised and ready to provide solutions and implementation processes.
Consider this. As an organization CWI has a dual purpose.
They serve as an intermediary which is known for its convening community and industry groups to facilitate solutions, providing data and labor market information, offering information about resources, and seeding best practices that help in formulating the solutions. They also directly deliver services such as career advising, provide credit recovery programming, have community learning centers for adult education services while overseeing a network of adult education providers, and they provide oversight for the American Job Centers, known as WorkOne in Indiana.
Commonly known for identifying and implementing best practices, CWI has administered more than 40 public and private ventures intended to improve the quality of the workforce, enhance the business climate, and ensure the realization of a higher quality of life.
While remaining a driver of workforce development in NW Indiana, CWI strategic priorities are on empowering its regional workforce through high quality career advising, skill building and efforts to increase post-secondary credential attainment.
Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership
Created in 2012, The Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership (The Partnership) is an umbrella organization operating the public workforce system in the City of Chicago and Cook County. The Partnership combines federal and philanthropic resources to broaden the reach and impact of workforce development services for both employers and job seekers. As the largest non-profit workforce development system in the nation, The Partnership has helped place more than 70,000 individuals in employment, collaborated with more than 2,000 employers, and administers more than $300 million in federal and philanthropic funds. The Partnership’s network of more than 50 community-based organizations, 10 American Job Centers, and sector-driven workforce centers serve 132 municipalities.
https://chicookworks.org/
City Of Minneapolis Employment & Training
Minneapolis Employment and Training administers a variety of employment and training programs under the direction of the Mayor, City Council, and Minneapolis Workforce Council. Minneapolis Employment and Training is the administrative entity and staff to the Minneapolis Workforce Council. City programs under the oversight of the Workforce Council include services for low-income adults, dislocated workers, and youth. In Minneapolis, these services are delivered to job seekers and businesses by community-based organizations that have been competitively evaluated and selected based on their ability to effectively serve target groups and achieve employment-related outcomes, including both placement and support for retention in employment.
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DESC - Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation
Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation (DESC) became the city of Detroit’s workforce agency in 2012. DESC is part of the Michigan Works! Association anda proud partner of the American Job Center network. DESC regularly partners with political and community leaders, employers, community-based organizations, and stakeholders to raise awareness regarding education and workforce issues facing Detroit residents. DESC serves as the fiscal and administrative entity that provides workforce employment and training services for the City of Detroit. DESC reports to the Mayor’s Workforce Development Board (MWDB), which was appointed by the Mayor of the City of Detroit and is responsible for developing the strategy for Detroit’s workforce development service delivery system.
Educational Data Systems, Inc. (EDSI)
EDSI (Educational Data Systems, Inc.) is a national workforce development, training solutions and consulting company with a passion for helping great companies and communities train and retain great people. EDSI works with regions, employers and jobseekers to overcome their most challenging obstacles. Founded in 1979 and headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, the company employs more than 800 people across the country. EDSI is a National Best and Brightest® Companies To Work For award winner.
EmployIndy
EmployIndy has transitioned to focus on target impact areas to create a more community-driven initiative, becoming a hub for targeted populations and those who have given up hope in the possibility of entering or re-entering the workforce. Establishing a more neighborhood-focused form of workforce development will be designed by both increasing the implementation of resources in local community centers and reducing barriers for residents so they may have access to career pathways and gain the necessary skills to excel in the workforce. This strategy presents employers with qualified candidates to fulfill their hiring needs. This ABC (Any Job, Better Job, Career) Approach exemplifies the transitional goal for both workers and employers, realizing that having access to a career and skilled workers is a journey, not just a destination.
Employ Milwaukee
Employ Milwaukee (EMI) was established in 1989 and is the largest Workforce Development Board in Wisconsin, serving the most diverse racial and economic area in the state. Governed by a board of 36 leaders from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, EMI employs 72 workforce development professionals, coordinates industry leaders across five sector-based advisory boards, and administers an annual budget of over $20 million. The board conducts data tracking and case management for its monthly quantitative and narrative reports to its 20+ funding and government partners. EMI has established an Industry Advisory Board (IAB) operating model around key industry sectors and occupations. Employer and industry representatives drive the alignment of EMI’s talent sourcing and skill development strategies to respond to the current workforce and labor market needs.
Kentuckiana Works
KentuckianaWorks is the workforce development board for the Louisville region, which includes Bullitt, Henry, Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer, and Trimble counties. We are funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) (through the Kentucky Education Workforce Development Cabinet) and Louisville Metro Government.
We operate a regional network of Kentucky Career Center services that includes job and career counseling, training, resume-building and direct referral to employers.
Our 2021 Strategic Plan lays out our priorities as an organization. We have also developed a Regional Plan for the Central Kentucky region's workforce as well as a Local Plan, both of which are required by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).
In January (Indiana) and May 2021 (Kentucky), we submitted a draft Bi-State Regional Plan for review. This plan, among the first of its kind in the nation, lays out a framework for KentuckianaWorks and Southern Indiana Works to share data and collaborate across the 13 counties that comprise the Louisville region. It is designed to improve the responsiveness to the needs of the region's employers, job seekers, and students.
South Central Region 8 Workforce Board, Inc.
The South Central Region 8 Workforce Board, Inc. (WDB) is a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation which has oversight of employment and training programs in the following eight counties: Brown, Daviess, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Orange and Owen. The WDB serves as a pass through entity providing employment and training programs in the Economic Growth Region 8 using a variety of state and federal grant resources, including those available through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), Re-employment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA), Adult Education WorkINdiana Training Program, Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG), Business Services.The WDB is governed by a volunteer board that will initiate program directives and provide oversight and guidance on program operations. Crowe, LLP serves as the Board's Fiscal Agent.
https://www.in.gov/dwd/workonesouthcentral/resources/
Southwest Indiana Workforce Board
The Southwest Indiana Workforce Board is comprised of business and community organization representatives in Southwest Indiana. The Board oversees the workforce development initiatives and the WorkOne Southwest offices in Dubois, Gibson, Knox, Perry, Pike, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh and Warrick counties.
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Stark Tuscarawas Workforce Development Board
The mission of the Stark Tuscarawas Workforce Development Board is to assist area businesses in meeting their workforce needs by coordinating the workforce development activities of the numerous employment, education, and economic development entities in the region. The OhioMeansJobs One-Stop System strives to act as a consolidated employment resource for all partner programs, employers, and job seeker customers while supporting the mission of the Workforce Development Board. These platforms provide free services made possible through funds provided by the U.S. Department of Labor and operated locally by the Stark Tuscarawas Workforce Development Board and the Stark and Tuscarawas Boards of County Commissioners.
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St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment (SLATE)
The St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment (SLATE) offers job seekers and businesses a variety of no-cost employment services, including job training and career counseling. It is the City of St. Louis government agency that offers job seekers and businesses a variety of no-cost services related to employment, training, and career advancement. SLATE, in coordination with the Missouri State Department of Economic Development (DED), Division of Workforce Development (DWD), the City of St. Louis Mayor's office and several partners, operates SLATE Missouri Career Centers, which connect employers to a skilled workforce and provide training and placement services to the City's adult workforce.
The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL)
CAEL is a national nonprofit membership organization that aligns educators, employers, and community leaders to build inclusive systems where adult learners and workers can thrive. Through its expertise in recognizing prior learning, mapping career pathways, and fostering industry-education partnerships, CAEL supports the creation of resilient talent pipelines and sustainable economic outcomes.
The Full Employment Council (FEC)
The Full Employment Council Inc. (FEC) is the administrative entity and fiscal agent for two workforce development boards: Kansas City & Vicinity Workforce Development Board and Eastern Jackson County Workforce Development Board. FEC is a business-led private nonprofit corporation whose mission is to obtain public and private sector employment for the unemployed and underemployed residents of the greater Kansas City area. FEC accomplishes this goal by working in collaboration with businesses, local units of government, educational institutions, labor organizations, and community-based organizations. This partnership responds to employer needs while reducing unemployment and underemployment of area residents.
The Northwest Indiana Workforce Board
The Northwest Indiana Workforce Board is a 27-member business member led board representing seven counties of Northwest Indiana including Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Newton, Jasper, Starke, and Pulaski counties. The board incorporated in 2005 as a non-profit board working in partnership with Local Elected Officials covering each of the seven counties. As part of its infrastructure, the Northwest Indiana Workforce Board has contracted with the Center of Workforce Innovations, Inc. to serve as the board staff, as the One Stop Operator, and to provide some services of Title 1 of WIOA.
The Workforce Alliance
The Workforce Alliance, initially established in 2016 among six workforce boards in North Florida and South Georgia to break down barriers for job seekers while helping employers hire and retain skilled workers, expanded in FY 2020-2021 with two additional Florida boards and Southeast AlabamaWorks.
The Workforce Alliance is now the first tri-state alliance in the southeast, with nine workforce boards serving 76 counties, thoughout North Florida, South Georgia and Southeast Alabama.
Visionz | Support Education Empowerment
Urban and low income youth, especially in Detroit, face a staggering, potentially life-threatening life skills and technology gap. They have lower internet connectivity, fewer computers at home, abysmal access to technology in schools, and they shoulder significant opportunity challenges outside the classroom. Acquiring the life skills that will close these gaps, unfortunately, is a luxury. The Visionz Project plans to close this gap by providing these youth with skills training, education and life support, direct work experience and mentoring relationships.The Visionz Project is a highly interactive training, experiential learning and support program that uses technology, instructor-led classroom training and career exploration activities to teach low income and at-risk youth life skills to help them succeed in life
Workforce Council of Southwest Ohio
The Workforce Council of Southwest Ohio is a 501c3 Ohio chartered nonprofit organization. The Workforce Council of Southwest Ohio implements the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) in the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. The board is responsible for developing strategies to engage employers, employees, government, education, organized labor and community-based organizations in a partnership to strengthen and expand the workforce resources of the region for the benefit of all the participants and communities where we live, work and raise our families. The SWORWIB sets the vision, policy, and performance expectations for the regional OhioMeansJobs (OMJ) workforce development system In Cincinnati-Hamilton County.
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Workforce Partnership
Workforce Partnership is committed to building a workforce development system that meets the needs of both job seekers and employers throughout the Kansas City area. We operate a network of career centers in Johnson, Leavenworth, and Wyandotte counties offering professional expertise and funding resources to employers and eligible job seekers.
YWCA Metro St. Louis
Founded in 1904, YWCA Metro St. Louis is the region’s largest and oldest organization dedicated to empowering women and eliminating racism. We meet people where they are, offering critical support and opportunity through programs in crisis intervention and housing, early childhood education, and economic empowerment. From helping survivors of domestic violence find safety, to preparing children for lifelong learning, to connecting women with meaningful careers, YWCA Metro St. Louis provides wrap-around services that transform lives and strengthen communities. Every year, we serve more than 10,000 women and families across the region — helping create a future where all people can thrive with dignity, equality, and hope.
MUS Member Spotlight:
The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL)
Earl Buford
President
Mission & Communities Served
Recognizing that adult learners are the backbone of the U.S. economy, CAEL, a national nonprofit membership organization established in 1974, helps forge a clear, viable connection between education and career success, providing solutions that promote sustainable and equitable economic growth. CAEL opens doors to opportunity in collaboration with workforce and economic developers; postsecondary educators and trainers; employers and industry groups; and foundations and other mission-aligned organizations, engaging with these stakeholders to foster a culture of innovative, lifelong learning that helps individuals, and their communities, thrive.
Key Services & Programs
CAEL Provides
- Consulting and program support.
- Capacity building.
- Platforms and tools.
- Membership and events.
- Industry-education partnerships.
- Research and other thought leadership.
Examples include:
Career pathways development: CAEL partners with educators and employers to create career pathway and competency maps that lay out navigable routes to continual success within key sectors. These maps benefit workers as well as employers, integrating entry-level, mid-level, and senior-level occupations. By highlighting competencies that qualify workers for progressively rewarding occupations, the pathways provide valuable insight to employers and workforce developers seeking greater efficiency in recruiting, upskilling, and retaining workers.
- EPCE and NACTEL: CAEL administers the Energy Providers Coalition for Education and provides management services and learning resources for the National Alliance for Communications, Technology, Education and Learning, also serving as the organization’s fiscal agent. These organizations bring together private and public employers, educators and trainers, contractors and suppliers, industry associations, unions such as IBEW and CWA, and workforce investment boards to support industry-tailored online programs, from microcredentials to advanced degrees. Since EPCE’s founding, more than 7,200 students have enrolled in more than 41,000 courses, and the coalition encompasses more than two-thirds of the industry workforce across all 50 states. NACTEL’s educational opportunities are available to more than 2 million workers in the sector.
- Credit Predictor Pro: CAEL's web-based credit for prior learning resource helps colleges and universities streamline the CPL process and increase its reach, guiding students through the process of documenting their work-based and other experiential learning and enabling a more seamless link between learning and work.
- Adult Learner 360: Is an integrated diagnostic tool informed by layers of complementary data. It combines decades of aggregated CAEL research with surveys of faculty, staff, and adult learners completed during each iteration with participating institutions.
Success Story / Impact
CAEL created an apprenticeship-degree pathway that reimagines the college vs. trade school debate from an “either/or” limitation to a “both/and” opportunity. College critics point to tuition that is rising faster than inflation, prompting many students to shoulder debt loads that take a lifetime (or longer) to pay off. They warn about the gap between what students learn in their classes and what they need to know to advance in their careers. Short-term credentials and competency-based hiring are gaining traction as alternatives for appraising talent. Advocates for college completion argue that degrees remain the best proxy for overall workforce readiness. They highlight the persistent correlation between educational attainment and lifetime earnings, evidence, they say, that college builds universally prized and transferable "essential skills" like communication and problem solving.
But there is no reason why theory and practice can't come together to create the best of both worlds. That's exactly what the Machinists Institute, Renton Technical College, and CAEL accomplished. CAEL led a collaboration to create a fully integrated associate degree and registered apprenticeship program. The pathway allows students to simultaneously complete a registered machinist apprenticeship and an associate of applied science in multi-occupational trades. Under the Machinists Institute-RTC partnership, 100% of students who complete a registered machinist apprenticeship also attain a degree.
The concurrent degree-apprenticeship model transforms complex crossroads into parallel pathways, connecting learners and workers to good jobs in the near term while lining them up to achieve longer-term academic and career goals. While new apprentices may not want -- or need -- to immediately possess a degree, as workplace changes accelerate, so do the reasons for keeping options open. When former apprentices do seek degrees, they often face transfer and enrollment challenges when trying to stack an apprenticeship into a college degree program. Assuming they do enroll, along with the financial burden I mentioned earlier, college takes a toll on another limited resource: free time. A concurrent degree-apprenticeship saves both.
Attaching a degree to an apprenticeship program also helps dispel potential concerns about forgoing college for an apprenticeship program. Echoing the false alternative inherent in the degree vs. skills debate, existing stigmas can unfairly portray apprentices as "not good enough" for college. The Machinists Institute-RTC pathway, which was carefully vetted for academic rigor, proves them wrong.
Concurrent apprenticeship-degree pathways also offer compelling organizational advantages. They entail constructive collaboration among colleges, employers, unions, and other workforce partners. Such engagement is essential to ensure academic curricula are aligned with latest industry training needs. The apprenticeship-degree framework also enhances total compensation packages. By offering a no-cost degree, they emphasize that apprenticeships are education benefits. Such perks are powerful recruiting and retention tools and can even boost productivity.
Concurrent apprenticeship-degree pathways are a path forward to a brighter future for the entire education-employment ecosystem. They offer a much-needed model for scaling apprenticeships at a time when they are expanding to include fast-growing sectors such as education, health care, and technology. In fact, there is no reason these pathways shouldn't be embraced across the country to benefit employers, higher ed institutions, and most importantly, apprentices themselves.
Why We Joined MUS
Long before "workforce alignment" and "skills-based hiring" became higher-ed buzzwords, CAEL was building the infrastructure for it. Since its founding in 1974, CAEL has worked to reframe the “academic vs. vocational” paradigm. Workforce development organizations like Midwest Urban Strategies provide critical complementary support to that mission. Together, we are replacing zero-sum silos with parallel pathways and advancing an understanding that education and employment are two sides of the same coin—a coin that can and must be the currency of the ever-evolving knowledge-based economy.
How MUS Membership has Benefited Our Organization
CAEL's partnership with Midwest Urban Strategies adds multiple links to the network CAEL is building to bridge gaps between adult learning and regional economic development. Direct coordination with multiple metropolitan workforce systems allows CAEL to scale its mission in new ways. Collaboration across distinct systems connected by common challenges creates opportunities for shared data resources, informs critical policy insights, and provides universal guidance on directing complex funding streams to where they can make the biggest impact on career pathways and their accessibility to adult learners and workers.
Partnerships or Collaborations Grown from Our MUS Membership
CAEL's partnership with Midwest Urban Strategies has helped launch MyCareerForward, which CAEL is piloting in Pittsburgh as its signature platform for creating and sustaining a universally beneficial talent development ecosystem. MyCareerForward marshals the collective capacities of regional partners in support of the ALICE (asset limited, income constrained, employed) population. MCF’s toolkit includes credit for prior learning, career navigation support, stackable credentials, and learning and employment records. A real-time data dashboard will ensure continual visibility of key MCF performance indicators, from learner engagement to credential use to labor market outcomes.
Fun Fact
CAEL's president, Earl Buford, helped found Midwest Urban Strategies! Buford was CEO of Employ Milwaukee, which led the unprecedented partnership that brought together 12 urban Workforce Development Boards across seven Midwestern states, marking the launch of the Midwest Urban Strategies consortium. Later, as CEO of Partner4Work, he was instrumental in adding Pittsburgh as a Midwest Urban Strategy member city.
Recent Spotlights
Membership
Midwest Urban Strategies offers a unique collaborative network that connects urban workforce development organizations across the Midwest, fostering innovative solutions and sharing best practices to enhance regional economic growth.
Our organization's members gain access to a wealth of resources, including expert insights, funding opportunities, and powerful partnerships, all aimed at driving meaningful change in their communities.
Apply for Membership
Is your organization ready to join us in building a more skilled, inclusive, and prosperous workforce for the communities we serve?