Workforce Development

LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York: Funding and Evaluation of Program for Dislocated Workers in Queens, New York

A large New York City urban renewal project, taking place in Willets Point, Queens, will displace hundreds of workers in automotive repair shops, food-service companies, and commercial hauling companies—businesses that may have difficulty relocating due to the physical layout of the community or the current state of the economy. LaGuardia Community College—part of the City University of New York—tapped Metis Associates’ grants-development expertise to apply for funding from the New York City Economic Development Corporation and Small Business Services to provide educational and counseling services to those workers who could lose their jobs amid this development project, the centerpiece of which is the new CitiField baseball stadium. The resulting Workforce Assistance Program will engage local community organizations, the existing public workforce system (into which LaGuardia is tied), and other community leaders to provide culturally-sensitive services to a community that has many immigrants and people with limited English proficiency.

The Division of Adult and Continuing Education at LaGuardia Community College is the largest continuing education program at a public college in New York City and a major employer and workforce-development presence in Queens. The college provides an array of services such as English as a Second Language, immigration counseling, GED classes, and job placement to a large immigrant population. It will draw on its own, CUNY’s, and various partners’ resources to design, implement, and evaluate a continuum of recruitment, assessment, job-training, job-placement, and retention services to assist workers who are displaced by the urban renewal project. Metis Associates will remain involved by providing technical assistance and evaluation services for the program, which was launched in March 2009.