WorkForce Central has been on a journey since 2018 to bring more equity and diversity into the Pierce County Workforce Development System.
We have approached this goal in a number of ways, from outreach to our underrepresented communities through the formation of the Pierce County Community Engagement Task Force to updating policies and procedures and bringing in system partners to focus on serving our local communities of color.
Internally, our staff has taken steps to increase their knowledge and understanding of DEAI (Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion) work by participating in an Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI)®, cultural podcast discussions and book groups, and other learning opportunities. We revised our Personnel Policies to include equal time off for all employees, regardless of position, experience, or tenure. We’ve also made lived experience a valued priority, giving it equal weight to professional and educational experience in our hiring. Below is a timeline of our journey showing all steps, big and small.
Our Journey to Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion
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October 2024
Financial Coaching Services
Financial Coaching services were implemented at the WorkSource Pierce One-Stop Center, facilitated by three dedicated, full-time financial coaches. This consistent, on-site presence helps foster trust and meaningful relationships with priority populations providing one on one financial coaching and financial education workshops to provide additional support and resources for underserved community members. Our goal is to help bridge racial, economic, and social gaps and create pathways for sustainable financial empowerment.
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August 2024
Cross Cultural Conflict Training
At our summer retreat, Caprice Hollins, Co-Founder of Cultures Connecting, lead Strategies for Effectively Engaging in Cross Cultural Conflict workshop. This insightful and engaging workshop provided staff with the opportunity to develop skills for engaging when tension exists across cultures. All WFC staff will also be participating in an additional DEAI workshop lead by Cultures Connecting in January 2025.
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June 2024
Job Description Updates
WorkForce Central updated all job descriptions to include language specifically citing employee’s requirement to meet our organization’s commitment to building equitable systems; knowledge of equity policy, approaches, and practices; commitment to harassment-free environment; and commitment to a diverse workforce. Also added to all job descriptions and job postings, was language to include skills and life experiences (skills gained throughout previous roles and lived experiences).
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June 2024
Small Business Highlight Videos
WorkForce Central started filming a video series highlighting local minority owned small businesses to spotlight their endeavors and, in some instances, highlight how receiving a Small Business Grant through the Community Reinvestment Fund has impacted and supported their businesses. Videos are being released monthly on our website and on social media.
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April 2024
Creating Collaborative Partnerships
WorkForce Central intentionally built collaborative partnerships with By-and-For organizations to support investments into small businesses owned and operated by priority populations; galvanizing relationships with our local Black, Latine, and Native American-owned small businesses to address disparities, strengthen the local economy, grow local talent, and create local jobs in Pierce County.
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March 2024
Tribal Governance Training
The Pierce County Community Engagement Task Force held a full-day Tribal Governance Training with Culture 2 Culture. The training provided a comprehensive overview of tribal governments and their intricate relationships with federal, state, and local governments.
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January 2024
Serving Justice Impacted Job Seekers
WorkForce Central started working within the WorkSource Pierce System to break down silos and form a network of partners to specifically build a justice-involved eco-system and build deeper partnerships in the community to create the most effective streamlined process for justice-involved customers to navigate the current system. In June, they held Avenues to Opportunities, an event geared to support this population at the Pierce County District Court Resource Center and in September several smaller groups merged into the official Pierce County Justice Support Network and held its first official meeting.
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July 2023
Understanding LGBTQ+
WorkSource Pierce staff were honored to receive training by Charlie Best with the Rainbow Center in Tacoma. We learned how to engage, support, serve, and increase awareness/understanding of the LGBTQ+ community.
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February 2023
WorkForce Development Anti-Racist Community Study in Eastside Tacoma
WorkForce Central contracted Complimentary Colors Consulting Collective to conduct a year-long study to understand barriers Eastside Tacoma residents have faced to quality workforce training and good jobs, and to generate community-centered solutions. Approximately 100 Eastside residents participated and were compensated for their time. The community feedback gained is now informing priorities for WorkForce Central and our workforce development partners and driving investments, including requesting funding for quality green jobs training and employment opportunities for Eastside residents through this grant application.
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May 2023
Lens of Equity Summit
The first annual Lens of Equity Summit was held to teach organizations, businesses, and individuals how to be action-oriented in implementing equity work. Specific and practical steps were outlined in presentations, workshops, and educational resources to show how to start implementing true DEAI work and effect greater change in Pierce County.
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July 2022
Wage Equity
In an effort to be more equitable among its employees and offer competitive wages, WorkForce Central implemented a new salary structure which pays every employee in the same job classification the same wage. Salary increases will be made across the board based on market research or Cost of Living increases, but will be uniform in its administration.
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July 2022
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together Book Club
WorkForce Central staff began a book club focused on the book “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together”.
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April 2022
Inclusive vs. Deficit Language
WorkForce Central staff held discussions about the use of deficit language, identifying commonly-used terms that may need to be changed to promote inclusivity and help us serve from a human-centered approach.
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April 2022
Universal Intake Form
A Universal Intake Form was created to decrease the number of times that Collaboration For a Cause participants have to write down their personal information when navigating between partnering organizations. This assists the providers with speeding up the referral process through direct connections of the clients being served.
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November 2021
Professionally Facilitated Me & White Supremacy Book Club
WorkForce Central staff held a professionally facilitated book club focused on the book “Me & White Supremacy.” Additional book clubs are held based on staff interest.
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October 2021
Survey to Public Website
A feedback survey was added to the WorkSource Pierce website allowing users to indicate the ease of access to information on the site and give specific information about any difficulties accessing information. This feedback informs ongoing updates to the website structure and how information is shared.
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September 2021
PCCETF Guest Speakers
The structure of Task Force Meetings was expanded to feature a special guest speaker at each meeting who shares information on cultural diversity, local initiatives, events, organizations, educational material, and more.
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August 2021
Support for New Contractors
Began providing additional technical assistance and support to new contractors who have less experience and infrastructure to effectively manage performance, reporting, and fiscal requirements that accompany federal funding.
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August 2021
Translation on Website
A translation feature was added to the WorkSource Pierce website allowing users to view the information in 17 different languages other than English. An existing translation feature on the WorkForce Central website was updated at the same time to include more languages and to be more visible.
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August 2021
Facilitation Training
Staff members began training and coaching sessions to use results-based facilitation; a collective impact facilitation model, that supports groups to move from talk to action and reach collaborative results.
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August 2021
Seeing White Podcast
Staff began participating in cohorts covering the Seeing White Podcast with weekly discussions about racism and DEAI education.
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August 2021
Lunch and Learn
A series of ongoing bi-monthly lunch and learn opportunities began for staff and partners to engage in discussions around diversity, equity, access, and inclusion.
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August 2021
Vacation & PTO Equity
WorkForce Central changed its policy to provide equal accrual of vacation and PTO hours to all employees, no matter their tenure with the organization. Changes went into effect January 2022.
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July 2021
RFP Technical Review
The technical review process for Request for Proposals was changed to a more equitable process. Instead of eliminating proposals that don’t meet submission requirements, we now alert organizations to errors and give three working days to correct and re-submit proposals.
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June 2021
The Corner
A new recurring video series, The Corner, was created, offering an opportunity to introduce various partners and highlight all the great work going on in our community today.
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June 2021
Collaboration for a Cause
The Pierce County Community Engagement Task Force joined with Goodwill to organize recurring large-scale collaborative distribution events to provide much-needed resources and services to areas in Pierce County still struggling from the pandemic. These events continue to happen across Pierce County quarterly.
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May 2021
Mental Health First Aid
Staff attended a training session focused on how they can identify and help those around them struggling with mental health issues.
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May 2021
Contracts Align with Social Justice Values
Expectation that organizations will align with WorkForce Central’s social justice values was added to contracts.
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March 2021
Staff Review/Evaluation Process
The annual employee review process was changed to focus on professional development and goal achievement instead of ranking quality of work on a scale.
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March 2021
Supporting Women of Color in the Workplace
This event featured a panel of women and a male ally who shared their experiences and perspectives on challenges faced professionally in the workplace; and how those situations could have gone differently. More than 115 people attended the event.
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February 2021
RFP Announcements To Minority Service Organizations
Requests for Proposals (RFPs) posting was expanded to include the Tacoma Minority Business Development Agency, the WA Office of Minority and Women Business Enterprises, and as many Pierce County-based organizations as possible. RFP announcements and RFPs encourage smaller and less experienced organizations to submit proposals, whenever possible.
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February 2021
Lens of Equity Mini-Series
The four-part series hosted by our Pierce County Community Engagement Task Force covered how promoting DEAI (diversity, equity, access, and inclusion) in an organization can serve the community, how we can increase access, and how we can keep a DEAI lens at the forefront of what we do. Over 100 individuals attended each session of the mini-series.
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February 2021
RFP Evaluation Criteria
Evaluation criteria for Request for Proposals (RFPs) were updated to include applicants’ history and plan for working with diverse and hard-to-reach populations, organizational policies and practices that promote equity and access, staff equity and anti-racist training, and diversity of organizational leadership and staff.
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January 2021
PCCETF Online Equity Library/Resources
The Task Force website added a section of online resources toward anti-racism and DEAI education work. It offers lists of online videos, books, and other resource checklists on helping individuals and employers with their own equity journey.
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January 2021
Job Description Updates
Job descriptions used for hiring were updated to include lived experience as qualifying factors instead of only educational degrees. WFC also encourages its business customers to do the same when hiring for open positions.
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December 2020
Equity Coaching
WorkForce Central staff members began participating in one-on-one equity coaching sessions to work toward equity goals
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October 2020
IDI Assessment
Each employee participated in an Intercultural Development Inventory, which is a statistically reliable, cross-culturally valid measure of intercultural competence. The assessment was followed up with individual coaching sessions with an equity coach.
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October 2020
Speakers Bureau
The Pierce County Community Engagement Task Force Speaker’s Bureau was formed offering speakers who have lived experience with homelessness and other challenges to organizations and agencies for presentations. Speakers are compensated for each speaking engagement.
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August 2020
Equity Resources Libraries
Resource libraries were created for staff members to gain access to information for DEAI work. A physical library was set up at the WorkForce Central office with books on the subject of equity. A digital library is also available to staff members to share information and articles with each other around Social Justice and Equity.
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June 2020
Virtual Job Fairs
Hire Pierce County Virtual Job Fairs began on a virtual platform to reach job seekers while in-person events were not possible during the pandemic. The events continue virtually as an effective way to connect businesses and job seekers into open positions.
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June 2020
Juneteenth Holiday for Staff
WorkForce Central recognizes the importance of equity and diversity in all ways including Federal Holidays. Therefore, we added Juneteenth to our schedule of paid holidays for all staff.
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April 2020
Accessibility Tool for Websites
An accessibility tool was added to the WorkSource Pierce and WorkForce Central websites. This feature allows users with visual impairments to better access information with options to increase or decrease font size and change colors to grayscale, high contrast, negative contrast, and light background.
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April 2020
WorkSource Pierce Website Self-Referral Forms
Options were added for customers visiting the WorkSource Pierce website to self-refer to a program. By filling out a self-referral form on the website, they will be contacted by a program representative to assess needs and discuss next steps for their career pathway.
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March 2020
Hybrid Work Model
A new hybrid work model was implemented at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic giving all WorkForce Central staff the option to work from home or from the office, depending on what works for their schedules and family circumstances.
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July 2019
Community Engagement Task Force Created
The Pierce County Community Engagement Task Force was established. The Task Force stands with the community to tackle our toughest workforce challenges and is proactively seeking peoples’ stories, building trust, and creating hope as we strive to redesign services and systems in which no one is pushed aside or left behind.
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November 2018
Community Engagement
WorkForce Central funded positions to support the creation of a community engagement team. The team created the Pierce County Community Engagement Task Force and associated programs.
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A CALL TO ACTION
We hope by sharing our journey it will inspire our partners to look at their own organizations and identify ways they too can bring more equity and diversity to their processes. This timeline is just the first iteration of our journey. We continue to review and evaluate our work and strive to be better than the day before.
