Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership

About Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership

Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership stands out for channeling large-scale public workforce funding into a tightly defined local system: its recent grants include an $18,427,130 award to EdAssist in Chicago for Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and Other Grant Activities. The partnership’s portfolio centers on job training, employment services, and workforce program administration, with repeated support for American Job Centers, delegate agencies, and sector-based initiatives that move jobseekers into work. Several of its highest awards go to organizations that operate core workforce infrastructure, including Employment & Employer Services, National Able Network, and Business and Career Services. The foundation’s grantmaking also shows a strong implementation role. Rather than funding individuals, it supports organizations that deliver services to jobseekers, youth, dislocated workers, and low-income workers. Recent program areas include youth employment, reentry navigation, contact tracing, public health workforce development, and clean energy workforce work under CEJA. Its active programs show a recurring preference for competitive RFPs and delegate-agency models that fund service delivery across Chicago and Cook County.

What Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership Funds

One major thread is system operations for the workforce network. Through its One-Stop Operator RFP, Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership sought a neutral operator to coordinate WIOA partner services across American Job Centers in LWIA 7, linking services across the City of Chicago and Cook County. Youth workforce services are another recurring area. The WIOA Youth Delegate Agencies RFP funded workforce development for young adults ages 16–24 in Chicago and Cook County, with a focus on career readiness and training. The partnership also funds transitional employment and reentry support. Its Reentry Navigation Initiative — The Road Home is an 18-month demonstration project for people returning from incarceration, combining navigation services with paid work experiences and supportive services such as housing, legal, and mental health support. Public health workforce efforts appear in the Chicago Community Health Response Corps and Chicago COVID-19 Contact Tracing Corps RFPs, which used community-based employers to build local hiring capacity during COVID-19 response work.

How Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership Gives