Statement for Annual Report 2020-2021

<< Annual Report 2020 - 2021

Friends, partners, community, co-conspirators, etc.

We have been on a long and trying road together in the nearly two years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Take a deep breath—this is one of the most extraordinary times in our history, and the disproportionate racial impact on the community has been heartbreaking.

Our workforce partners have spent two hard years on the front lines of this pandemic. When asked for some candid feedback, 80% reported increased demand for services, but perhaps more importantly, 95% said the individual needs of clients have increased. Higher costs for resources like childcare have amplified barriers of systemic poverty and made it harder for individuals to re-enter the same low-paying jobs they had before the pandemic.

In our last program year, there was an increase in Black/African American and multi-race clients and a decrease in white and Asian clients. These numbers largely reflect people of color taking the brunt of continued economic disruption. White workers, who are not impeded by systemic bias, have gained more benefits from added jobs and positive overall trends in unemployment. A pandemic cannot see race or document status, but our economic system sure does.

At the risk of stating the obvious, we must get the pandemic under control to ease the suffering. But let us be real with you: our vision of an equitable workforce system centering racial equity is incompatible with the pre-pandemic status quo. To do more than just respond to the needs of the moment, and make real long-term changes to fight disparities, we need to share and expand on our vision, build solidarity to realize it, and show up when it counts.

Our commitment to you as a backbone for this work is to connect strategy with funding, elevate the work of our partner network, ground decisions in data, and keep you in the loop.

Yours in partnership,

Marie Kurose
CEO

Angela Dunleavy
WDC Board Chair