LISC LA’s Digital Pathways to Careers Initiative
2.14.2022
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LISC StoriesFinancial Stability
LISC Los Angeles has partnered with Microsoft and Mastercard to launch the Digital Pathways to Careers Initiative, which will build and support career pathways through digital navigation and upskilling opportunities. Through this partnership, LISC LA’s Financial Opportunity Centers® (FOCs) will be able to expand beyond their three core services to include digital navigation and skills building services. The three core services that all FOCs provide are:
- Employment and career counseling,
- One-on-one financial coaching, and
- Income supports, education, and low-cost financial products that help build credit, savings, and assets.
LISC LA's lead implementation partners in this work are long-time FOC sites Mexican American Opportunity Foundation and Central City Neighborhood Partners. The Asian American Drug Abuse Program, LISC LA’s newest FOC site, will also incorporate various of the program into their service delivery. All of LISC LA’s FOCs are embedded in low-to-moderate income communities and provide services in an integrated way – rather than as stand-alone services – and with a long-term commitment to helping clients reach their savings, credit, and career goals.
Such services are a critical part of LISC LA’s 5-year strategic plan (2020-2024) and economic development goals of creating living wage jobs, building racial wealth equity, and developing a skilled and trained workforce. Additionally, these services aid in connecting individuals and families to living wage jobs, career pathways, and financial stability.
COVID-19, social distancing guidance, and state and local stay-at-home orders have brought the urgency for improved technology access and digital fluency to the forefront. The pandemic has expedited an increase in remote work, digitization and automation in the workforce. LISC LA’s FOC sites serve as community hubs and provide a unique platform for integrating comprehensive digital opportunity and inclusion services with career coaching and financial coaching. Through the Digital Pathways to Careers Initiative, the FOCs will expand digital navigation and literacy, digital skills training and career pathways, as well as provide access to devices and broadband.
FOC financial coaches and employment counselors, out of necessity, have utilized remote-learning throughout the pandemic. The Digital Pathways to Careers Initiative will provide coaches and counselors with additional course content and materials to expand remote learning and promote digital navigation and upskilling opportunities with their clients and training participants. Remote learning has expanded the options for training participants who otherwise would have faced scheduling issues, limited childcare, and other barriers to attending in-person daily training (analogous to how online college classes have increased in popularity as a convenient option for working students).
All of the tools and knowledge acquired through this initiative will have lasting benefit, as digital skills have become crucial for workers—and for the nonprofits who provide skills training to them. This investment is not merely a COVID-19 response; rather, it has helped, and will continue to help, nonprofit partners and their communities adapt to the “future of work” and access jobs employing technology in the workplace. Workplaces of all shapes, types and sizes increasingly need people that know how to operate, promote and communicate online. Persons can access these services provided by FOCs if:
- They reside in low-to-moderate income communities where the median household income is $43,813
- They are without a high school diploma
- They are or have been justice-involved
- They identify as Black, Latinx, or Person of Color (BIPOC)
- They are above the age of 18
- They are unemployed/underemployed
LISC LA’s Financial Opportunity Centers® (FOCs) are well positioned to meet the need of this moment, as they help participants secure employment and sustain financial gains, leading to economic stability. Additionally, each individual that accesses the FOC integrated service delivery model receives a host of services over an indefinite period of time that will not only allow them to increase their digital skillset, but also build a budget, increase their credit, discover career development opportunities, and access income supports.
