Strong Programs Stall When the Systems Around Them Don’t Connect
Workforce and community-based organizations hold deep local knowledge and nurture powerful relationships. When the frameworks supporting them run on separate tracks, that expertise stays isolated. Coordination becomes harder. Impact stays smaller than it should.
8 to 1
By 2032, U.S. population growth is projected to outpace labor growth by nearly 8 to 1.
1 in 3
Less than one in three graduates participate in a paid internship. For low-income students, the gap is even wider.
6M
The U.S. faces a projected worker shortfall of 6 million by 2032.
Local Expertise Deserves Infrastructure That Amplifies It
JobsFirst partners with local workforce intermediaries—Local Drivers—to give workforce organizations and CBOs a clear, shared design for coordinating across systems. We bring proven tools and learning from cities and regions already doing this work. Your organization’s insight doesn’t stay local; it shapes how other cities and regions invest, operate, and design pathways to opportunity.
Proven Designs for Organizations Ready to Move As One System
Local Drivers across cities and regions are incubating and scaling solutions that replace fragmented frameworks with coordinated, community-led progress. What works in one region strengthens the next.
The Power Of Cross-Sector Coordination
Local Drivers use a shared process to align programs, partners, and priorities. Each site builds on what others have learned. Organizations get clearer coordination; communities get stronger paths to opportunity close to home.
By 2030:
65
Solutions Advanced
Local Drivers incubate and advance models that replace barriers with paths to employment.
750+
Local Partners Aligned
Workforce, education, government, and philanthropy using a shared framework.
50,000
Young Adults Realizing Economic Mobility
Each new Local Driver increases coherence and durability across cities and regions.
Upcoming Events
Convenings and learning sessions where organizations share and refine solutions that strengthen community pathways for every young adult.
Coordinate Across Systems
Work within a proven design that supports alignment, learning, and improvement across cities and regions.
FAQ
A place-based approach means building coordination infrastructure with local expertise at the center, so the specific assets, relationships, and priorities of a community lead the way. JobsFirst equips Local Drivers with a shared framework and proven tools so workforce organizations and CBOs can move as one system: close to home, connected to opportunity.
Workforce and community organizations hold deep local knowledge and nurture powerful relationships. Without a shared coordination structure, that expertise stays isolated. A place-based design gives programs the infrastructure to align with partners, share learning, and produce outcomes that go further than any single organization can achieve alone.
JobsFirst partners with Local Drivers to give workforce organizations and CBOs a clear, shared design for coordinating across systems. Proven tools and cross-site learning from cities and regions already doing this work inform every place-based partnership. What works in one community shapes what gets built in the next.
Across cities and regions, JobsFirst Local Drivers have aligned 750+ partner organizations through a shared framework and connected more than 50,000 young adults to clearer paths to economic mobility. Each new site strengthens the system and adds to a growing body of place-based practice.
JobsFirst works with organizations ready to move beyond programs and toward coordinated, place-based systems change. Start a conversation through our contact page and we will connect you to the Local Driver building infrastructure in your region.