Giving Compass' Take:

• Code For America helps local governments harness technology to streamline processes and show how data can solve problems. Recently, the organization is tackling workforce development programs to make improvements to the system. 

• How can tech innovation help individuals secure jobs or re-enter the workforce? Where does philanthropy come into workforce development? 

• Read the Giving Compass Workforce Development Guide for donors to learn more. 

At Code for America, we’re focused on making sure that the government services intended to play this role actually work. We believe that technology and government are the two biggest levers to improve people’s lives. We envision a government with services that are simple, easy to use, and just as good as the consumer services readily available today in the private sector.

Since 2011, Code for America has worked with thousands of tech industry professionals to help hundreds of local governments take a user-centered, iterative, and data-driven approach to solving problems, improving outcomes, and saving money.

Code for America has spent the last two years going deep into the public workforce system, large portions of which are overseen by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration and governed by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). This system invests about $4.3 billion annually in job training, placement, and counseling services across the country, which are delivered primarily through a network of 550 regional workforce boards that oversee about 2,500 job centers.

Code for America’s approach to improving these and other systems borrows from the leading practices of agile software development. One critical practice is to start with the end-users in mind: how do they navigate the system, and what do they want to accomplish? That means Code for America staff observe users and talk directly with them and the front-line staff with whom they interact every day. We’ve observed two consistent themes:

  • Job seekers are eager to get back to work, but face multiple barriers to securing employment
  • Front-line staff are dedicated to helping people secure employment.

Read the full article about the technology helping to put people back to work by Efrem Bycer at Brookings.