In an evolving workplace with decreasing reliance on 4-year degrees, a narrative shift is necessary to ensure EVERYONE sees their path to a quality job. The goal: to bring national awareness to the broad range of job pathways available for women, people of color and those impacted by the justice system.
Quality jobs are key to economic success for individuals, businesses, communities and our country YET 138 million people working in the U.S. today face barriers to economic advancement. Jobs for the Future's Quality Jobs campaign brought awareness to decision makers, parents and students that "everyone has a path to a quality job."
The campaign integrated a combination of assets, including:
a) short videos captured around the country with candidates from myriad backgrounds and ages pursuing certificated studies, community colleges, industry-sponsored trade apprenticeships and other opportunities striving for quality jobs;
b) medium-length films captured with unlikely heroes who are pursuing a positive work future despite finding themselves in places and spaces that might normally restrict their opportunities for quality jobs.
c) PSAs launched on the Today show and Good Morning America.
d) a white paper collaboration with Gallup aiming to help people recognize the key components of a "quality job" - e.g. financial wellbeing, opportunities for growth, security & stability
e) a partnership with Comcast for broadcast of the content
and
e) "Horizons" Summit which brought thousands of stakeholders together from across the spectrum (and across the aisle) in fields ranging from culinary arts to professional sports, engineering and AI.
JFF outreach to find talent to represent the project was national - for example, working with community colleges and jobs training programs in Colorado like the Arapahoe Community College Sturm Collaboration Campus in Castle Rock that provides a range of educational opportunities for youth and mature age candidates in various fields (healthcare, cybersecurity, IT, Automotive, etc).
We reached out to programs where industry partners sponsor certificated programs at colleges and universities to better prepare candidates for graduating into identifiable jobs and scoured programs in California, the mid-Atlantic, and efforts like BOCES in upstate New York, where we found candidates in their New Energy initiatives who were enrolled in sponsored energy "Labs" at the area's high school level and which feed apprenticeships in the local area, strengthening future opportunities for high school students for whom a 4-year college degree might not be an appropriate path for success, and the financial toxicity of traditional higher education narratives might need to be reviewed.
Our medium format films featured a spectrum of individuals for whom a Quality Job was not necessarily a given such as (1) Lisa - a previously incarcerated woman who had to re-earn her right to work as a psychologist, and who now employs other justice-affected individuals in serving people who benefit from her understanding of their situations, (2) Will - a rural youth involved in electric battery programs and apprenticeships through a school/work program, and (3) Epiphany - a young Black mother who utilized a community college education to advance her working world.
The campaign achieved rare air for a jobs-related issue in reaching
a) 2,000 industry stakeholders through JFF's Horizons Summit in New Orleans,
b) media (TIME magazine - https://time.com/7301613/gen-z-hungry-for-career-advice/ ) and relevant governmental bodies via a joint report issued by JFF & Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation, and
(c) families and teenagers via broadcast as a PSA during the Today show and Good Morning America, and across Comcast's ecosystem;
(d) and a network of industry partners who've signed on to join the 75 Million Network! https://info.jff.org/the-75-million-network
The range of video assets ensure a wider reach to different demographics who are native to different platforms, and they also tied back to thought leadership pieces and also back to landing pages such as:
The 75 Million Jobs Impact Dashboard - https://www.jff.org/impact-dashboard/
and
The Quality Jobs campaign site - https://www.jff.org/quality-jobs/
This ecosystem has ensured that the campaign and its effects meet people and organizations where they innately live, work and engage.
