Home » Services & Products » Special Initiatives

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

The NYC Department of Youth and COmmunity Development (DYCD)

WPTI has been contracted by the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development to provide technical assistance to all of the out-of-school youth employment programs in the City. This three-year project is enabling WPTI to reach hundreds of organizations funded by DYCD. Through training and technical assistance, WPTI is able to assist youth employment programs in the following areas:

1. Project Management
2. Job Creation and Employer Engagement Strategies
3. Effective Ways to Reach and Engage Young People
4. Strengthening the Skills of Managerial Staff Who Oversee Performance Based Contracts

The NYC Department of Small Business Services

WPTI has been contracted by the New York City Department of Small Business Services to strengthen and build upon the capacity of the New York City OneStop system by enhancing the skills of frontline and management staff at all of the City's Workforce1 Career Centers by providing them with customer service, facilitation, and one-on-one job career coaching training services. SBS expects that through this special training initiative they can continue to improve on the 18,000+ job placements they make system wide each year, further helping connect more job seekers to employers during this difficult economic time.

The Mizuho USA Foundation-Funded Criminal Justice Initiative

With support from the Mizuho USA Foundation, over the past year and continuing in  2010, WPTI has engaged in several field-connecting training programs, bringing together professionals from the re-entry, criminal justice, and legal fields to provide training to improve the capacity of professionals that assist persons with criminal records to obtain meaningful employment. Under this initiative, WPTI has involved the New York City Department of Probation in a specialized project to provide a Workforce Development 101 training to 150 NYC Probation officers, many of whom work with people in need of workforce development services but who have limited knowledge of what services are available to them.

The Tiger Foundation

Due to the current economic climate, the Tiger Foundation and WPTI are offering a new benefit to workforce organizations that are receiving support from Tiger. The Foundation has arranged with WPTI a subsidy (up to 75%) for fees associated with WPTI's public calendar training programs for the coming year. If your workforce organization receives funding from the Tiger Foundation, and you would like to apply for the discount, please contact WPTI Director of Training Amy Landesman at 646-278-5687 or alandesman@workforceprofessionals.org. WPTI will submit all training discount requests to the Tiger Foundation for approval.

Public/Private Ventures (P/PV)

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 2010, 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.