Home » Services & Products » Special Initiatives

WPTI has taken on significant customized projects that have directly impacted the workforce development field.

The Heckscher Foundation Academy

WPTI has partnered with the Heckscher Foundation for Children to provide a specialized technical assistance and training initiative to specifically build the workforce development capacity of five leading foster care service providers in the New York City area, including Children’s Village, Good Shepherd Services, Jewish Childcare Association, Safe Space, and SCO. The Academy is a significant at-scale effort to address the employment and career exploration needs of youth aging out of the New York City foster care system.

Jobs First New York City

WPTI is proud to partner with JobsFirst NYC to build customized hybrid programs of training and technical assistance for organizations active in the JobsFirst NYC CBO Network as well as other youth employment organizations in the New York City area. The hybrid approach will help organizations to better connect training tools available to them in training sessions to onsite resources staff can use day-to-day in working to connect youth to jobs.

The Mizuho USA Foundation-Funded Criminal Justice Initiative

With support from the Mizuho USA Foundation, WPTI is engaging in several field-connecting training programs in the coming year, bringing together professionals from the re-entry, criminal justice, and legal fields to provide training that can improve the capacity of professionals that assist persons with criminal records to obtain meaningful employment. This initiative is also focusing on strengthening the capacity of the public sector to improve services of funded organizations to address this same issue. At present, this training initiative is planned to also involve the New York City Department of Small Business Services and the New York City Department of Probation.

The Pinkerton Foundation-Funded Partnership with the Youth Development Institute.

This year, WPTI is providing intensive training and technical assistance to educational organizations that are presently participating in a special initiative managed by the Youth Development Institute (YDI). YDI oversees the Community Education Pathways to Success (CEPS) initiative, in which community-based organizations providing educational services to young people receive technical assistance and support from YDI's staff. WPTI is working with some of the CEPS organizations to assist them in building workforce development organizational capacity, and to provide direct staff training. Support from The Pinkerton Foundation has made this partnership possible.

Public/Private Ventures (P/PV)

WPTI has partnered with P/PV on several initiatives since 2004:

Outcomes Management: Using Data to Improve Performance – P/PV’s Marty Miles has partnered with Lou Miceli at WPTI to offer an ongoing training series for managerial staff in workforce development programs. Many organizations do not realize the power there is in defining success internally and in assisting all staff to be outcomes-driven in order to improve organizational performance. In 2008, WPTI and P/PV are planning a more in-depth training series on this vital topic, customizing aspects of the program itself so it can be more readily personalized to the needs of those organizations that participate in the training series.

Working with Employers - WPTI conducted the first P/PV Working with Employers curriculum in the New York City area. This ten-week course is geared towards entry-level job developers who can benefit from tools to meet the new needs of their dual customers: the job seeker and the employer. This course was also held in Boston and Chicago.

Workforce Leaders Academy - WPTI was part of the initial design team that created the curriculum, methodology, and deliverables for the first Workforce Leaders Academy, an intensive, year-long senior-management training program customized to the specific needs of the workforce development field. The Academy is in its second iteration, and WPTI is presently a curriculum consultant for this program.

Presentations and Panels

WPTI is regularly asked to participate in larger workshops and conferences as panelists or breakout presenters. Past presentations include:

New York Association of Training and Employment Professionals (NYATEP)Spring Workforce New York Conference, Albany, NY, June 2008
WPTI gave a presentation entitled "Retention Intervention: Effective Strategies to Keep Job Seekers Connected to Your Program"

New York City Employment & Training Coalition (NYCETC)
Workforce Development Summit & Expo , May 2008
WPTI gave two presentations at this event: "First Impressions Count: Strategies to Supercharge Recruitment and Engagement of Hard-to-Serve Job Seekers" and "Using Data to Improve Outcomes in Workforce Development Programs: Best Practices and Implementation Strategies"

Goodwill Industries of Greater New York & Northern New Jersey, Inc.
“Yes It Does Matter: Moving Beyond Job Seeker Disengagement,” November 2007
WPTI was the keynote speaker at Goodwill’s staff development day

New York Association of Training and Employment Professionals (NYATEP)
Fall Workforce New York Conference, Buffalo, NY, October 2007
WPTI gave two presentations, “First Impressions Count: Strategies to Supercharge Recruitment and Engagement of Hard-to-Serve Job Seekers” and with representatives from the Department of Small Business Services, Grant Associates and Delta Airlines “Improving One Stop Employer Services through Strategic Planning”

Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies
Workforce Development Taskforce Meeting, September 2007
WPTI gave a presentation on “Retention: What are the Four Phases of Retention and How are they Implemented into Our Programs”

New York Association of Training and Employment Professionals
New York Statewide Youth Academy, February 2007.
WPTI gave a presentation on youth, criminal justice, and employment.

Workforce-1 Career Center (One-Stop) System
Presentation by Scott Zucker, Deputy Commissioner for Workforce Development at the Department of Small Business Services, January 2007.
WPTI was featured as a “critical success factor” for the performance improvement efforts for the past year at an event hosted by the NYCETC.

New York City Workforce Investment Board
Workforce Policy Committee meeting, October 2006 

Metropolitan College of New York
Transferable Skills Presentation, September 2006

Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce
College to Careers Expo, May 2006 

Metropolitan College of New York
Latest Career Trends Panel, May 2006

New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance
State Wide Conference, November 2005

The Continuing Education Association of New York
Statewide Conference, October 2005

Supportive Housing Network of New York
Annual Conference, June 2005