Thanks to an $82,000 grant from The Barra Foundation, University City District’s West Philadelphia Skills Initiative (WPSI) will move employment training site, West Philadelphia Skills Center for Economic Advancement, from pilot phase to a fully-integrated, holistic approach.

The Center for Economic Advancement, located at Community College of Philadelphia West on 47^th and Chestnut Streets, was opened in 2012 as an intensive soft job skill training site that helps bridge the employment gap in West Philadelphia. The Barra grant will allow WPSI, which launched in 2010 to address issues of unemployment and poverty in the community, to implement the most effective strategies tested during the Center’s pilot phase over the last year.

“From recruitment, assessment and selection to programming and evaluation plans, we have studied which approaches work best with our participants and our employers,” WPSI Director Sheila Ireland told West Philly Local. “Although we will maintain a stance of continuous improvement, we know feel that we have a good understanding of what works.”

According to the Pew Charitable Trusts’ 2013 State of the City, the median household income for the University City region is $21,801, with 48.1 percent of residents living in poverty. In West Philadelphia’s West Market region, the numbers are slightly higher—$26,487 and 33.8 percent. West Philadelphia Skills Initiative aims to change that tide by connecting local residents with partnering employers that have operations in West Philadelphia through its three programs: the Center for Economic Advancement, Job Pipelines, and the Youth Employment Network. Last year, WPSI worked with over 130 participants across all three programs, which either provide training or professional internships in the medical assistance, information technology, landscaping, lab technology, administrative, and security industries among others. 

All of the participants who’ve effectively completed WPSI’s Job Pipelines program have entered into employment with employer partners, said Ireland, with 92 percent receiving and accepting job offers after six months and 87 percent retaining employment after a year. As for the Center for Economic Advancement, which promotes “rapid attachment to entry level work”, 62 percent of participants found work. “This is twice the placement rate of the public workforce system,” she said.

While WPSI was established by the University City District, funding for the program—which carries about a $500,000 annual operating budget—is entirely sustained by charitable donations.

“While WPSI is a small shop endeavor I think our greatest impact has been to change employer perspectives about hiring locally,” said Ireland. “We have some of the most influential organizations in the world right here in University City who can hire from around the globe. It’s nice to see them hiring ‘local gold’.”

–Annamarya Scaccia