East Bay Community Foundation: Jobs Critically Needed for Disadvantaged, Impoverished

OCT 20, 2009, OAKLAND, CA -- The East Bay Community Foundation today released a new study on job opportunities for those facing “extraordinary barriers to employment.”

Titled “Putting the East Bay to Work: Sustainable Jobs for the Underemployed,” the study compiles recommendations for employers, training institutions, service providers and policy makers to provide employment for “low-income, disadvantaged, impoverished, underserved, and underrepresented” people in the East Bay.

Specifically targeted by the study are those with limited English skills, those who are no longer eligible for foster care because of their age, and those recently incarcerated.

“These three targeted groups of individuals do face extraordinary barriers to employment and are in dire need of job opportunities,” said Nicole Taylor, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation. “Because of real and present dangers presented to public safety, I want to especially single out the need to provide jobs for those formerly incarcerated. 

“These individuals must have a realistic chance of being reintegrated into their families and their neighborhoods and of avoiding the recidivism that is an issue not only our criminal justice system, but also one that greatly affects the health and safety of our communities,” she said.

“The time is long past when we can believe the myth that the impacts of the high numbers of repeat offenders being released every year back to the East Bay can be resolved through increased policing by itself.”  

Financed by a grant from the Ford Foundation, the 70-page study identifies employment opportunities for the three targeted groups in four different sections of the local economy prevalent in Oakland and Richmond: construction and green technology, health care, logistics and international trade, and custom manufacturing.

The study found that employers in these industries are willing to hire those facing barriers to employment, but that a number of “best practices” must be embraced in order for job opportunities to be created.