Two new publications from the Aspen Institute, Cooperative Home Care Associates: A Case Study of a Sectoral Employment Development Approach and Grow Faster Together or Grow Slowly Apart: How Will America Work in the 21st Century?, highlight the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute’s industry-based workforce development strategy. These papers are available at http://www.paraprofessional.org and http://aspeninst.org/dsg/2002report/fullreport.pdf, respectively.

Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA), published by Aspen’s Economic Opportunities Program, focuses on the flagship company in PHI’s Cooperative Healthcare Network. A worker-owned home care agency, CHCA employs close to 650 African-American and Latina women, the majority of whom have recently transitioned from public assistance. CHCA models an innovative employment strategy for the industry, investing significantly in training and advancement of aides to promote retention and quality care for consumers. As a result, CHCA has established a reputation as an excellent employer and a high-quality service provider, providing the agency with significant opportunities to grow and thrive in a difficult marketplace. Click here to download the case study.

The Aspen Institute’s Domestic Strategy Group (DSG) recently released Grow Faster Together or Grow Slowly Apart: How Will America Work in the 21st Century? This paper identifies three major problems facing the American economy: a worker gap, a skills gap, and a wage gap. The DSG notes that for the past 20 years, businesses have relied on a growing native-born workforce that was rapidly increasing its level of education and skill. With this growth at a stand still, businesses will need new strategies to expand the skilled workforce. To support these changes, the report offers five public policy solutions:

1. Make work pay.
2. Build a more skilled workforce and foster upward mobility.
3. Restore worker security while enhancing workforce flexibility.
4. Provide a more supportive workplace for working families.
5. Rethink immigration policy.

Grow Faster Together . . . describes the efforts of several business enterprises to promote new workforce development strategies and to reshape public policy to support those efforts, including Cooperative Home Care Associates and its partnership with the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute. Read the full report at http://aspeninst.org/dsg/2002report/fullreport.pdf