What Happened?
The city of San Francisco recently submitted its Skillville project to the Knight Foundation News Challenge as an idea of how to connect professional development opportunities for job seekers with city projects.
So What?
Through micro-volunteering programs, municipalities can expand operations and capacity, while local residents looking for employment can gain hands-on work experience and skills training to make them more attractive to potential employers. The Skillville strategy aims to address growing demands in municipalities nationwide that are facing significant budget cuts and high unemployment in the community. The public-private collaboration would offer job seekers with opportunities to increase skills and experience, while contributing to local government programs and initiatives. As a result, public measures can persist without breaking the budget and the local workforce is strengthened.
How It Works
The Skillville plan involves local officials and employers in the community identifying what skills are needed to fill job vacancies. Each skill selected will have a badge created for it, which can be earned by job seekers through microvolunteering programs and then presented to employers to demonstrated capabilities. Cities can develop a Skillville profile that contains information on the badges, microvolunteering programs and job opportunities in the community. Once the badges have been created:
- Municipalities recruit employers to endorse badges with rewards such as interviews, networking opportunities or other job seeking aids
- Governmental agencies adopt the badges and encourage staff to earn them through microvolunteering opportunities
- Local job seekers create profiles on Skillville to showcase their skills, experience and interests
- Online algorithm matches job seekers with opportunities
- Job seekers engage in a project, earn a badge and receive recommendations and job endorsements from supervisors via Skillville
- Badges are redeemed and displayed online for employers to view with job applications
Workforce development agencies can manage the Skillville program by screening participants, assessing employers and training job seekers on how to take advantage of the technology.
Volunteers From The Private Sector
Communities in New Jersey and along the East Coast continue to rebuild in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. More than 160 employees from the Verizon Leadership Development Program recently offered to volunteer at the Hugh J. Boyd Jr. Elementary School in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, to help local officials restore the institution so it will be ready to reopen its doors for the 2013-2014 school year. Volunteers are being asked to paint classrooms, tend to landscaping, build picnic tables, decorate outdoor recreational amenities and construct benches along the boardwalk.
Part of the Verizon Foundation, the volunteer group is composed of newly hired college graduates that are being groomed to become leaders in the corporation through advanced training and participation in community programs. Verizon is cooperating with Jersey Cares to connect its promising employees with volunteer opportunities to strengthen individual skills as well as public projects. The goal of such partnerships is to sustain governmental services while promoting civic engagement and skills development within the private sector.
Other Volunteer Strategies
Gov1 has reported on cities using volunteers to enhance parks departments as well as launch new sustainability strategies.