Careering

The story of one community’s exploration of geographic solutions to geographic poverty

Anne Gloger

It was lack of services in the inner suburban community of East Scarborough, ON that prompted the design and development of a new kind of organization. The East Scarborough Storefront was created by the community for the community to ensure that local people had access to local services. The Storefront began as a service hub where staff acted as hosts, conveners, facilitators and connectors for 35 social sector organizations offering a range of services from employment to legal advice, settlement to addictions support.

The Storefront was originally funded by the federal government as an innovative approach to providing employment services for people furthest away from the labour market. By creating this community-based, one-stop shop, The Storefront seamlessly brought together quality employment services and easily accessible wrap-around supports under one roof. The Storefront became a trusted place in the community that offered holistic services, thereby eliminating or reducing the need for jobseekers to navigate systems in order to have their needs addressed.

This was the early 2000s, when there was growing evidence that in Toronto, like in so many cities across Canada, poverty was becoming increasingly concentrated in specific communities. These communities, predominantly in the inner suburbs, were and are largely populated by people of colour, and are plagued by decades of underinvestment, poor transit and few options for decent work (United Way of Greater Toronto, 2004; 2011; Hulchanski, 2010; 2015).

Over the next two decades, both on-the-ground experience and research evidence began painting a picture of geographic poverty and yet, there were few geographic solutions to this rapidly increasing problem.  Ultimately, social services were never going to be enough to reverse this alarming trend. Access to decent work is fundamental to geographic solutions to geographic poverty. The Storefront was well positioned to begin exploring innovative, community-centred approaches to workforce development to create that access.

Working in the context of a community ecosystem

What was unique about The Storefront’s approach to designing and operating a service hub was its emphasis on facilitating and stewarding inclusive processes, constantly listening, learning, iterating and fostering collective action. Surfacing local stories and ideas made it glaringly obvious that while the service hub effectively broke down barriers to service access, the community aspired to so much more.

Services help people overcome individual barriers to jobs. The people of East Scarborough identified that, in communities like theirs, so many barriers were not individual, but systemic. Services are important and necessary, but do little to shift the systems that for too long have acted to keep Black, Indigenous and people of colour from accessing opportunities to decent work.

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The Storefront was created as a “by the community, for the community” solution to service access. The Storefront’s role as facilitator and convenor has been variously called a network weaver, an integrator and a community backbone organization. Over time, by learning together with partners and community, it became clear that the implications of this role could go well beyond service delivery, and could make a significant contribution to improving economic inclusion in marginalized communities.

Systemic barriers need systemic solutions

A visionary funder, the George Cedric Metcalf Foundation, invested in the early research and development that The Storefront needed to understand the potential of being an integrator or community backbone organization in local economic inclusion.

Early insights from the Democracy Collaborative in Cleveland, Ohio helped to identify that in many marginalized communities, decent work did in fact exist: “Cities are increasingly turning to their ‘anchor’ institutions as drivers of economic development, harnessing the power of these major economic players to benefit the neighborhoods where they are rooted. This is especially true for cities that are struggling with widespread poverty and disinvestment.” (Wright et al., 2018)

Anchors are institutions that are “rooted in place” like hospitals, universities and, in the case of East Scarborough, the local zoo. Millions of dollars are spent and hundreds of jobs are created in these anchor institutions and yet, local people, especially people who are racialized and living in poverty, are rarely able to take advantage of these employment opportunities. In 2016, The Storefront, as part of the provincial poverty-reduction strategy, began to explore how workforce integration at a local level might make a difference.

The Storefront’s role as an Employment Ontario service provider brought insights into just how programmatic, siloed and fragmented the workforce ecosystem was in East Scarborough. While there were excellent organizations doing excellent work, there was no unifying vision that would help address the personal, practical and systemic barriers that local people were facing accessing decent work.

East Scarborough Works: Place-based workforce development in action

Employment services are essential in helping people find, secure and keep employment. Our research found, however, that employment organizations are often frustrated by the complex dynamics of employer cultures, recruitment norms, and economic and regulatory environments that exist at the “demand” end of workforce development pathways.

The research further revealed that people furthest away from the labour market often feel that employment services are not for them. While there are certainly exceptions, by and large, employment organizations work with the people who walk through their doors or attend formalized events, leaving those who don’t further marginalized from the labour market.

And finally, without intentional integration, employment service providers often struggle to find the right wrap-around supports and the right training to help people furthest from the labour market prepare for and secure employment.

East Scarborough Works (ESW) was born out of The Storefront’s experience as a service hub integrator and from new learnings about the employment ecosystem. It is based on the recognition that even when the components of employment ecosystems exist in a community – jobseekers, social services, training organizations, employment organizations and employers – they are typically disconnected from one another. Local expertise, assets and resources are critical to creating effective local workforce development strategies, but leveraging them requires a new way of working.

East Scarborough Works uses a Connected Community Approach (CCA) to cultivate a deep understanding among local people, organizations and networks about each other’s mandates, priorities and expertise. This understanding creates a foundation for multiple organizations to work together to ensure that local people have the best opportunity to prepare for jobs created by anchor institutions.

Early prototypes have shown promising employment outcomes: pre-pandemic results in hospitality saw 22 local people secure employment at a new event venue and a success rate of 70-80% in the social sector. The ultimate impact, however, is in changes in the system. To this end, we have seen:

• Increased transparency from anchor institutions about recruitment needs and processes
• Improved cross community/cross-sector communication
• Increased collaboration among Employment Ontario organizations
• Increased voice and involvement of grassroots groups in problem solving and outreach
• Improved overall understanding of the community as ecosystem and who plays what role in supporting people furthest from the labour market to secure decent work

Based on these early outcomes, The Storefront has begun working collectively with anchor institutions, service providers, trainers and jobseekers to design demand-led, supply-driven, network-managed workforce development pathways in construction, tourism and facilities maintenance.

Implications beyond East Scarborough

East Scarborough Works is one of the inaugural projects of Toronto’s innovative Workforce Funders Collaborative (TWFC). TWFC, Metcalf Foundation and other funders and policy-makers are helping to deepen our collective understanding of the potential of using the Connected Community Approach in place-based workforce development.

East Scarborough is not the only community where people furthest from the labour market are unable to access jobs created through large-scale local investment in anchor institutions. What is emerging in East Scarborough can be adopted and adapted to work in various contexts.

The model beyond East Scarborough is known as Connected Communities Work (CCW), which takes a whole-community approach to supporting people furthest from the labour market to prepare for and secure local employment. The Future of Good has identified CCW as one of the country’s most promising initiatives to move toward more equitable and sustainable cities post-pandemic.

The City of Toronto has adopted the model as a pilot in its new Community Benefits Framework. Together with the Centre for Connected Communities, the City is exploring how CCW can move the needle on equity hiring associated with large-scale development and anchor institutions in communities across the city.

Researchers have been pointing to increasing geographic concentration of poverty in Canadian cities for almost two decades now; there are, however, relatively few examples of successful geographically based strategies to address it. The Storefront’s service hub is one such example and its relatively new foray into local workforce development is poised to be another. And we need a lot more, because, as local residents, researchers and employment service organizations will tell you, geography does matter.

Anne Gloger is the founding Director at the East Scarborough Storefront and Principal at the Centre for Connected Communities. Gloger’s background includes early childhood education, social development and business. She has over three decades of experience co-designing impactful community projects and approaches including the Connected Community Approach for which she has received several awards including the Canadian Urban Institute David Crombie City Builders Award, the Jane Jacobs prize and the William P Hubbard Award for Race Relations.

Additional references

Bhatia, A., Heese-Boutin, C.-H. & Roy, M. (2020). Geography Matters. Metcalf Foundation. https://metcalffoundation.com/special-series/the-working-poor-three-perspectives/

Gloger, A. (2016). The Connected Community Approach: What it Is and Why it Matters. https://connectedcommunities.ca/C3-2017/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/CCA-What-it-is-and-why-it-matters.pdf

Mann, C. (2012). The Little Community That Could. East Scarborough Storefront. http://www.thestorefront.org/ourbook/index.html

Stapleton, J., Murphy, B. & Xing, Y. (2012). The “Working Poor” in the Toronto Region: Who they are, where they live, and how trends are changing. Metcalf Foundation. https://metcalffoundation.com/publication/the-working-poor-in-the-toronto-region-who-they-are-where-they-live-and-how-trends-are-changing/

Dalhousie University interviewed students and graduates belonging to equity-deserving groups to better understand their experiences in the labour market

Vicki Mackintosh and Michelle Patrick

Equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility (EDIA) have been major buzzwords in the labour market in the past 18 months. But it goes beyond language. The onset of a global pandemic has exposed inequities in the workforce experienced by historically excluded communities. What does EDIA actually mean to the people facing inequities in the workforce, and how can career development shift to appropriately serve them?

It is no surprise that jobseekers from equity groups – including Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC), 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals and people with disabilities – report that they feel underrepresented and lack support in the workplace. Members of equity groups are often denied employment opportunities, and even when hired, face inequities and discrimination. In Canada, people of colour experience significant hardship securing employment, even if they are highly educated. They are also less likely to attain higher positions such as management and senior roles and are more likely to experience substantial wage gaps.  Career development must acknowledge these inequities and provide effective strategies to support diverse individuals.

Methodology

Dalhousie University Career Services – within Student Affairs, the Faculty of Management and SITE (science, information technology and engineering) co-op education – wanted to better understand the experiences of students and graduates belonging to equity groups in accessing the labour market and gaining meaningful employment (including work terms or co-op placements). In July and August of 2021, as part of a pilot project, EDIA Outreach Assistant Vicki Mackintosh facilitated conversations with 13 individuals to identify their barriers, challenges and needs.

In these virtual one-on-one discussions, participants spoke about their career goals, and what they looked for when applying for a job and in an employer. They opened up about the challenges they faced in employment and while accessing supports from employers or the university – often describing how frequently they encountered discrimination. Students shared how they needed to work twice as hard as others who did not represent an equity-deserving group. Mental health was frequently mentioned as a challenge stemming from the discrimination and oppression they met daily. Students and alumni spoke about their experiences disclosing their identities with others and acknowledged areas of support to make this, and the overall experience, more comfortable.

Below are some of the priorities for supportive action identified by students and graduates, which can inform career development practices in a post-secondary context and beyond. Institutions and employers should take the time to build relationships and trust with these communities and listen to their specific needs, as regional and cultural difference can further shape practices. Significant consideration should be given to the equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility of services and the workplace, as well as the positions being recommended to jobseekers, and employers should actively encourage diversity in upper management.

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Inclusive environments

Jobseekers shared that an equitable hiring statement was a critical element that they looked for in a job post. However, they also wanted further information to determine the employer’s true culture, policies and practices to recruit, train and retain equity groups in the workplace.

People of colour stated that company culture, diversity and positive leadership were essential to their consideration when applying for a job. All participants who identified as part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community said that they sought compassionate female leadership. These participants added that while it was a start to hang the Pride flag, they wanted to know what was being done to create an inclusive and supportive environment. Students and alumni who identified as having a disability suggested they sought employers who would consider accommodating them in their work environment, including with paid sick days.

“Career development for jobseekers within equity groups must include building self-efficacy to be able to advocate for their needs at each stage of the employment process.”

Career development then has a place to assist jobseekers to understand their own needs from an employer to feel safe and included. This may include helping jobseekers learn how to evaluate job postings to determine whether a potential employer’s policies and practices are reflective of their EDIA statements.

Building empowerment

Providing students with the resources and skills to advocate for themselves is another important recommendation that emerged from the conversations. Many of the participants experienced feeling undervalued, unheard and harassed during their work term or employment.

Those who identified as having a disability spoke about how often co-workers and managers made them feel guilty about taking time off for illness, working at a slower pace or receiving accommodations. Participants were also discouraged by the lack of clear communication after submitting applications. They shared that they would appreciate being asked if they required accommodations prior to a meeting or interview. Those with learning disabilities who struggled to think on the spot identified that having clear meeting goals or being provided the interview questions in advance would be beneficial.

Career development for jobseekers within equity groups must include building self-efficacy to be able to advocate for their needs at each stage of the employment process. Career services can help empower students and graduates to ask for what they need, which can include education and information on labour laws to help jobseekers understand their rights and responsibilities. Employers can provide confidential, culturally competent employee supports and include ongoing diversity and sensitivity training for all staff. Both career services and employers must understand their own power and privilege, and the impact this can have for equity groups in a workplace setting.

Supportive networks

The value of mentorship and networking was also a significant topic of discussion among most participants. Having mentors with shared identity and similar lived experiences, or in their chosen field of work, was something participants felt strongly about. Those with mentors spoke about their positive experiences, with some saying they would not be where they were today without mentorship.

Career development must include the fostering of networking skills, particularly to support students in building their network within their own community – not just their industry of interest. Similarly, general mentorship programs must focus on recruiting a broad range of diverse mentors and equip mentors and mentees with a clear understanding of their roles to encourage a healthy and lasting relationship. To promote cultural safety, mentors who do not share the identity of their mentees should be educated on the systemic barriers faced by equity groups and to recognize their own power and privilege.

Safer spaces

Creating safer and more open space for jobseekers is vital. When asked what would make equity-deserving folks feel more comfortable in the workplace, students suggested:

• open, honest conversations regarding identities and accessibility needs
• pronouns on name tags and in email signatures
• information specific to equity policies and practices in the workplace available to employees, as well as the general public
• seeing themselves reflected in all aspects of the workplace such as diversity in senior management

Career development practitioners should consider these suggestions within their own practice and engage in professional development to learn more about employment equity and discrimination and their effects in the workplace. This includes but is not limited to using a trauma-informed lens and collaborating with diverse colleagues.

It is clear in Canada we have a long way to go to reach equality and equity in the workforce. The global pandemic has shown how equity groups are disproportionately affected, and career supports for them are more essential than ever. It is our hope that this knowledge will be used to strengthen the future of equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility in recruitment, hiring and employment. If we are to reimagine career development, we need to acknowledge and understand the individual and their identities, and the impact of the intersection of identity, and honour their lived experience by providing inclusive, relevant supports.

Vicki Mackintosh (she/her) is a master’s student in Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Agriculture, in Truro, NS. She has been working with the Bissett Student Success Centre as the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA) Employer Outreach Assistant on the discovery of equitable hiring and recruitment. She participates heavily in equity advocacy and sits on many boards and committees for women’s rights as well as 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion.

Michelle Patrick (she/her) is the Student Success Career Advisor at Dalhousie University, located in Halifax. Prior to this, Patrick was the program manager for PLANS (Promoting Leadership in health for African Nova Scotians), which aimed to increase representation of Black health-care professionals in Nova Scotia. She is also a member of the Racial Violence policy development group and co-chair of the Student Affairs EDIA committee at Dalhousie.

It’s time to move beyond funder-imposed metrics of success and take ownership of our story of positive impact

Deirdre Pickerell, Sareena Hopkins and Lynne Bezanson

Over the past 30 years, and counting, career development professionals (CDPs), their managers and employers, along with various funders, have hotly debated the data that demonstrate the need for services and how to best evaluate the success of various interventions.

The sector has been caught in a seemingly never-ending loop of funding priorities based largely on work-search interventions, which are then measured by number of clients in education and training or employed. In some jurisdictions, these are not only the metrics used to evaluate services, but also what triggers funding. With the shift to performance-based outcomes, service providers are increasingly incentivized to shape their programming and interventions to achieve these narrow outcomes.

Yet, career professionals know that the individuals they serve present with a wide range of needs beyond wanting referrals to training or jobs. CDPs know they make a difference in the lives of their clients in a myriad of other meaningful ways, including positive improvements to hope, confidence and mental health, and reductions in poverty and addiction. These changes have important positive implications not only for the individuals served, but also their families, communities and, broadly, the socio-economic health of the country.

As we consider career development reimagined, there may be no better time to explore what we measure and to shift our mindset. It’s time to move beyond funder-imposed metrics and truly take ownership of our data, our services, our evidence and our story of positive impact. With this in mind, a team of career development leaders recently came together to develop and study a logic model for Canada’s career development sector.

Building a vision of career development

A logic model is a linear picture of a program or intervention that comprises the resources needed – which are called inputs (e.g. staff, budget) – and the services being offered, called activities (e.g. counselling, training). These combine into various programs and services offered, which are called outputs. The inputs, activities and outputs need to result in some sort of expected change in clients who engage with services; these are the outcomes. The outcomes are generally broken down into three timelines for when the desired change might occur, such as short-term, mid-term, long-term.

Within the sector’s logic model, our ultimate outcome (i.e. what would happen if every other outcome was achieved) is to have Canadians manage learning and work to both build the lives they want and to contribute to a thriving and inclusive economy. This is a lofty goal, but it serves as an important north star, shaping the mindset we need to move forward.

What the research showed

One key interest in studying a logic model for Canada’s career development sector was to understand whether respondents could provide evidence for specific outcomes and, if yes, what kind of evidence they could provide. The research consisted of a targeted survey of CDPs across Canada. We had close to 400 responses, with representation from almost every region. The research team explored four distinct outcomes from the logic model; two were short-term outcomes and two were more mid-term:

The research consisted of a targeted survey of CDPs across Canada. We had close to 400 responses, with representation from almost every region. Our key interest was whether respondents could provide evidence for specific outcomes and, if yes, what kind of evidence they could provide.

“It’s time to move beyond funder-imposed metrics and truly take ownership of our data, our services, our evidence and our story of positive impact.”

The majority of respondents felt fairly confident they could provide evidence. However, specific examples of evidence were limited and included data such as year-end statistics, quotes and testimonials from clients, and information from clients about their wages and employment status. Much of the respondents evidence referenced was focused much more on securing future funding than on client progress toward longer-term career development outcomes. As one respondent put it, “I believe most organizations look at the needs of clients when providing services. What makes it hard is to try to match to our funder needs also.”

This is the self-fulfilling loop referenced earlier; what gets measured by funders is what is incentivized to get done, with funders’ priorities potentially superseding clients’ real needs and priorities. But what if we could shift the mindset of all stakeholders, including funders, to recognize that the employability needs of clients should drive services and that their progress toward goal achievement is critically important – and, in fact, the only way to achieve sustainable outcomes? To do this, the sector must have the ability to provide evidence (proof) that clients have made progress, even if they are not yet employed.

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A new way of evaluating outcomes

Over the past decade, the Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF) has partnered with multiple jurisdictions and frontline CDPs across Canada on the “art of the possible” when it comes to employability assessment, service planning and delivery, data collection and the story of impact our sector can tell. The resulting tool, PRIME, engages clients in a robust assessment of employability strengths and needs, captures a richer range of progress and outcomes indicators, and uses this data to feed improved service and impact. PRIME is now being integrated into career/employment services, with clients actively shaping the interventions they need and CDPs providing strong evidence of the deeper and wider impacts of quality career services.

Here are just a few highlights from the most recent research:

• Statistically significant positive changes in clients across 48 progress indicators across the full spectrum of employability dimensions (e.g. pre-employability/readiness, career exploration/decision-making, skills enhancement, intra-personal factors such as hope, resilience and motivation);
• Statistically significant positive changes in clients across 16 indicators of mental health/wellness;
• Data on client community engagement and involvement in part-time work, volunteerism, entrepreneurship and self-care;
• And, of course, outcome data on employment and training.

CDPs involved in using PRIME as part of this research – and who were able to generate and use the resulting evidence – were transformed as well. A broader mindset shift affected CDPs’ ownership and empowerment, with positive impacts on their sense of professionalism, commitment to ethical practice and quality service, client engagement and – not surprisingly – evidence-based practice.

These kinds of developments that begin to shift our thinking about progress and outcomes are moving the career development profession in Canada forward. Tools like PRIME allow CDPs to take charge of our own data, ensuring we can measure meaningful and concrete progress in addition to the outcome data funders value. Only then will we be positioned to tell full and real stories of client transformation – both the progress they made, and the outcomes achieved.

To achieve this goal, CDPs must shift their mindset to owning their data, and the story it tells. What we measure matters, but decisions about what gets measured must come from the profession, not the funder. Our collective minds must shift from:

• a preoccupation with outcomes to a preoccupation with context, progress and outcomes
• services driven by funder priorities and program availability to services driven by client needs and evidence of progress
• a focus on client numbers to a focus on client change

The research briefly described here creates a foundation for providing tools and supports as our field shifts its mindset to truly embracing our capacity and identity as evidence-based professionals.

Dr. Deirdre Pickerell is an award-winning career development leader. She has spent many years exploring the data that demonstrates impact of career services and has led the recent research teams examining evidence-based practice.

As Executive Director of CCDF, Sareena Hopkins works to strengthen the impact of the career development sector by moving from ideas to action in areas of public policy, research and development, capacity building and advocacy.

Lynne Bezanson is Executive Director Emeritus of the Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF), which means that she has been contributing to the career development field for a very long time and simply cannot stop!