Key Terms and Definitions

These terms and definitions may be helpful as you complete your application to the Fund for Workforce Equity.

Worker + Learner Engagement: In the first round of the Fund for Workforce Equity, our evaluator SPR Associates included the engagement spectrum below to help grantees and funders understand how grantees were working to engage workers and learners in their funded projects. In Round 2, we will be looking for ways in which applicants propose to move their projects and/or organizations toward the right-hand side of the spectrum in terms of engaging workers and learners most impacted by racial, ethnic, and gender disparities. This engagement spectrum was developed by SPR and the International Association for Public Participation. It was originally developed as the Spectrum of Public Participation in the early 2000s.
Workforce Equity: In an equitable workforce, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, and other demographic characteristics no longer predict one’s outcomes in the labor market. All people have equitable access to jobs that are safe, pay a living wage, offer benefits, provide career pathways, and opportunities for mobility. [1]And, disparities in compensation and employment are eliminated for all demographic groups across all occupations and sectors. Workforce equity is achieved by centering communities most impacted by racial, ethnic, and gender disparities and working collaboratively to transform policies, institutions, and structures.
Targeted Universalism: Targeted universalism, a framework put forth by john a. powell and the Othering & Belonging Institute, “is the pursuit of universal goals with targeted or tailored measures, programs or interventions.” Targeted Universalism rejects the concept of a blanket universal solution, as that would likely be indifferent to the reality that different groups experience the institutions and resources of society in different ways. Targeted strategies to achieve a goal or solution address the realities of the different groups. Targeted universalism also rejects the claim of formal equality that treats all people the same as a way of denying difference. In targeted universalism any proposal is evaluated by the outcome, not just the intent. For example, while a goal for employment may be universal, strategies used to achieve that goal may differ to be especially sensitive to the needs of the most marginal groups.
Centering worker voice and agency: Centering worker voice and agency means to include, respect, value, and honor the perspectives and lived experiences of learners, workers, and job candidates in meaningful ways in the design, delivery, and evaluation of workforce programs, services, and policies. Read more about this concept in Workforce Matters’ Racial Equity Framework for Workforce Development Funders.
Worker power: According to the National Employment Law Project, worker power means workers can collectively shape working conditions and influence the rules and structures of work so that their communities can thrive.
Power sharing/Power building – power sharing/power building refers to how to create or change structures and supports such that workers and learners, who typically have less “power” with respect to programs that they participate in and the staff that run them, have and can exercise greater agency in these contexts. Definitions on the site Racial Equity Tools provide more context for what we mean. Power sharing is part of what it means to be inclusive. According to Racial Equity Tools, to be inclusive means to authentically bring traditionally excluded individuals and/or groups into processes, activities and decision/policy making in a way that shares power. Power can be defined as (A) The ability to name or define. (B) The ability to decide. (C) The ability to set the rule, standard, or policy. (D) The ability to change the rule, standard, or policy to serve your needs, wants, or desires. (E) The ability to influence decision makers to make choices in favor of your cause, issue, or concern. So, if power is the ability to name or define, decide, set the rule/standard/policy/change the rule, standard/policy OR the ability to influence decision makers, then sharing power in this instance would mean giving the learner/worker the ability to do the above to the same extent as the organization.
Worker rights: While there is no single definition of workers’ rights, rights included in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (Articles 23 and 24, 1948) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), as well as the International Labor Organization, provide for: the right of everyone to freely choose or accept work (e.g. no forced labor or compulsory labor); the effective abolition of child labor; the right to just and fair wages; the right to a safe and healthy work environment; equal opportunity for employment and promotion; rest, leisure, and reasonable limitation of working conditions and access to periodic holidays with pay; and freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining.
Good Jobs: There are many ways to define what makes a good job. The 2019 report “Not Just a Job: New Evidence on the Quality of Work in the United States” (Gallup) outlines ten key characteristics of job quality, as ranked by workers themselves: 1) Level of pay; 2) Stable and predictable pay; 3) Stable and predictable hours; 4) Control over hours and/or location; 5) Job Security; 6) Employee Benefits; 7) Career Advancement opportunities; 8) Enjoying your day-to-day work; 9) Having a sense of purpose and dignity in your work; 10) Having the power to change things about your job that you’re not satisfied with. The Families & Workers Fund and Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Institute released a working definition of good jobs in 2022 that includes many of the same elements organized under three main components: 1) economic stability, including family-sustaining pay; 2) economic mobility, such as through access to training and wealth-building benefits; and 3) equity, respect, and a voice in the workplace.
Southeast Michigan encompasses the counties of Monroe, Washtenaw, Livingston, Oakland, Wayne and Macomb. Major cities in Southeast Michigan include Jackson, Adrian, Brighton, Blissfield, Detroit, Monroe, Tecumseh, and Ann Arbor.
Western NY includes the following counties: Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Monroe, Niagara, Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming. Major cities include: Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Jamestown and the surrounding suburbs.