INDIANAPOLIS – February 22, 2024 – EmployIndy is grateful for the continued support of Lilly Endowment Inc. to sustain and improve EmployIndy’s Youth Employment System (YES) to effectively address education and employment disparities for Opportunity Youth–youth and young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 who are not in school and not working–in Indianapolis.

According to Measure of America’s Youth Disconnection in America Tool and 2021 American Community Survey data, there are roughly 25,200 Opportunity Youth in Central Indiana, with 15,800 of these disconnected youth residing in Marion County. Youth can become disconnected from education and employment for various reasons such as inadequate access to job training, homelessness, involvement with the justice system, and lack of familial support.

The new $5.5 million Lilly Endowment grant will help EmployIndy strengthen its partnership with community-based organizations that are central to how YES Indy provides guidance and resources to low-income, out-of-school young adults in Marion County so they can set and reach their educational and employment goals.

EmployIndy launched a new three-year strategic plan in 2023, with a focus on scaling four quality interventions that have impact across all populations to address equity and opportunity gaps in education and employment. These interventions include Career-Connected Learning, Coaching + Training, Talent Connection, and Good Jobs. EmployIndy has braided state and federal funding with philanthropic funding to expand and strengthen the delivery of YES Indy quality career navigation services both directly and in partnership with community-based organizations who are essential to this work. These services include developing effective outreach through the Re-Engagement Center (REC) model, providing employability and industry skills trainings, and offering valuable work experiences and job placements.

“We are grateful for Lilly Endowment’s support of our strategic efforts to provide young adults with more opportunities to prepare for sustainable employment,” says EmployIndy President & CEO Marie Mackintosh. “These funds will enable us to continue to expand and enhance the efforts of youth-serving organizations in our community who are re-engaging and supporting those disconnected from school and the workplace.”

In addition to supporting YES Indy network community organizations (see full list below) that directly provide youth services, EmployIndy will invest these grant funds into three key strategies to increase youth engagement with high-quality services:

1. Open an additional YES Indy Re-Engagement Center (REC) in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood;

2. Add two new YES Indy providers to the network; and

3. Increase wages for all YES Indy provider staff to establish a baseline for Good Wages across the network.

Over the past twenty years, the Lilly Endowment, Inc. has provided support that has enabled more than 8,000 Opportunity Youth to enroll in EmployIndy youth employment services.

To deliver YES Indy services, EmployIndy selects community-based organizations through a competitive procurement process. Our current network of providers include:

1.         Community Alliance of the Far Eastside (CAFE)

2.         Edna Martin Christian Center

3.         Fathers and Families Center, Inc.

4.         Flanner House

5.         Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana (GCSI)

6.         Keys to Work

7.         Martindale-Brightwood CDC

8.         Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center

9.         PACE, Inc.

10.       YMCA of Greater Indianapolis

Learn more about YES Indy services or connect to a YES Indy service provider at yesindy317.org.

INDIANAPOLIS – 13 November 2023 – Today, Mayor Joe Hogsett recognized the third annual “Apprenticeship Week” in Indianapolis. This week-long celebration, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Labor’s National Apprenticeship Week (NAW), will be celebrated by stakeholders who strive to promote both Registered and Youth Apprenticeships throughout Marion County.

“The City of Indianapolis and EmployIndy want to foster as many pathways as possible to the career, wage, and life that residents want,” said Mayor Hogsett. “Through apprenticeship programs, prospective employees can gain access to good-paying jobs, and industries can gain access to a motivated, local workforce.”

Apprenticeships are an industry-driven, high-quality career pathway where employers can develop and prepare their future workforce, and individuals can obtain paid work experience, classroom instruction, and a portable, nationally recognized credential. Youth Apprenticeships, in particular, provide young people with a model of success for introducing our future workforce to expanded career pathways.

High school students who complete the Modern Apprenticeship program, a 3-year youth apprenticeship program launched by EmployIndy and Ascend Indiana in 2020, can participate in hands-on work experience that complements their traditional coursework, in growing fields such as business, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, and information technology (IT). Afterward, they can pursue a college degree or enter directly into the workforce. Youth apprenticeships offer young people the rare opportunity to get paid to learn while multiplying their options after high school.

EmployIndy is also celebrating our commitment to strengthening and diversifying Registered Apprenticeship programs during this year’s National Apprenticeship Week. As one of more than 200 industry, labor, and community-based organizations– as well as educators, employers, and workforce intermediaries– among the inaugural cohort of the Biden-Harris administration’s Apprenticeship Ambassador Initiative, EmployIndy will continue leveraging this designation and additional funding to scale innovative apprenticeship practices in Marion County and Central Indiana.

“EmployIndy is committed to the growth of apprenticeships in our region as a way to help strengthen our local economy, build pipelines to good quality jobs, and advance racial and gender equity,” said Marie Mackintosh, EmployIndy president and CEO. “Through our existing initiatives like Modern Apprenticeship, and future initiatives like the Regional Apprenticeship Hub, we’ll continue to make advancements in removing barriers to quality employment for underserved and underrepresented residents.”

As the workforce intermediary guiding apprenticeship expansion in non-traditional occupations in Marion County and the greater Indianapolis Region, EmployIndy is uniquely positioned to help local employers build, launch and scale their apprenticeship programs. To expand on this work, EmployIndy is partnering with AIR to launch the Regional Apprenticeship Hub. This hub will convene and coordinate the apprenticeship efforts of partners in the region, enabling an effective and collaborative apprenticeship ecosystem.

As employer demand for highly skilled talent continues to grow, establishing a system of career-connected learning that will create equitable opportunities for all Indianapolis students has become a necessity. This week, we celebrate the recent growth and impact of apprenticeships in Marion County while looking forward to the progress ahead.

While recent unemployment percentages in Marion County are comparable to those seen pre-pandemic, unemployment and underemployment can still be a stressful experience for individuals in that situation. 

As the workforce development board for Marion County, EmployIndy is committed to ensuring all Marion County residents have access to the services and training necessary to secure a livable wage and grow in a career that meets employer demand for talent. In spite of or incidental to macro trends in unemployment numbers, an EmployIndy initiative has had success placing job seekers who are feeling the stress of unemployment or underemployment at companies who need their talent. 

“Wednesdays@WorkOne”, a free weekly hiring event at EmployIndy’s full-service center on Indianapolis’ east side, WorkOne Indy, has been boasting an average of nearly 100 job seeker attendees per week. These job seekers are taking advantage of the opportunity to network with the roughly 20 unique hiring employers who attend on a regular basis. 

“Word is definitely getting out that we’re here,” Associate Director of Career Services, Bryan Spellman, said. “And we get a lot of returning employers.” 

Spellman said that in 2022, the hiring event attracted a total of more than 3,000 job seekers and about 225 employers, which resulted in more than 1,000 hires, a number that gets reported back from attending companies. 

In 2023, the hiring event continues to build upon the successes of last year. Just 6 months into the year, Wednesdays@WorkOne has already exceeded half of last year’s number of circulating individuals. It helps that about four new businesses are also showing up per week—at least one indicator that there are still jobs out there to be found—and at least 560 people have landed a job from their interactions with those employers so far this year. 

The industries that are represented at the hiring event are impressive and diverse: from healthcare and transportation to manufacturing, maintenance, childcare, culinary, banking, and others. EmployIndy recently spoke with a couple of those employers about what keeps them coming back to Wednesdays@WorkOne. 

Barrett & Stokely, a property management company with more than forty housing complexes across Indiana, has become a regular attendee. Talent Acquisition Specialist Carol Cashen said she tries to attend at least one Wednesdays@WorkOne per month in an effort to fill roles like Property Managers, Maintenance Technicians, and Groundskeepers. Interested job seekers can find a list of Barrett & Stokely current openings here. 

Meanwhile, First Student Recruiter Kelly Woods also felt strongly about the value Wednesdays@WorkOne provides to her company. She said she has been coming every two weeks for about two years because of the number of applications—for Indianapolis Public Schools’ Bus Monitor and Bus Driver roles—she receives because of the event. The company provides paid CDL B training, and open positions can be found here. 

EmployIndy oversees the operations of WorkOne Indy, an American Job Center, at 4410 North Shadeland Avenue on Indianapolis’ east side. The career services, training, and talent connection resources available to job seekers at WorkOne Indy uplifts EmployIndy’s strategic plan theories of change: Coaching + Training and Talent Connection. To learn more about EmployIndy’s commitment to scale quality interventions that lead to economic mobility, check out our recently released 2023-2025 Strategic Plan. 

The Wednesdays@WorkOne hiring event is held every Wednesday from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. and is open to the public. No registration is required. Businesses looking to fill their open positions via this hiring event can receive registration information by sending an email to bspellman@nullemployindy.org.