Counties for Career Success

In 2023, NACo launched a time-limited intensive learning community for eight counties that met virtually and in person over 12 months to identify opportunities and reduce barriers in career pathways for county residents. Each of the communities in the Counties for Career Success (C4CS) initiative created a team of three leaders representing workforce development, human services and post-secondary education systems. The team worked with NACo staff and other subject-matter experts to develop a shared action plan to help students and jobseekers overcome barriers to education and employment. 

C4CS was supported by ECMC Foundation and the Walmart Foundation.

The C4CS county teams approached this initiative by identifying a local workforce or career pathway issue to resolve. While the participating communities were diverse in their size, demographic composition and economic context, their priorities largely fell into one of three categories:

• Facilitating career pathways for a specific resident population
• Facilitating career pathways into specific industries
• Creating organizational efficiencies to support career pathways broadly

Through intentional collaboration across workforce development, human services and post-secondary education, the eight county teams worked together to develop a shared vision and set of goals. Using a custom logic model, each county team identified evidence-based strategies and created a detailed action plan that identifies implementation steps, roles and responsibilities and plans for measuring and scaling results. Participating counties are now using their action plans to make progress toward the following goals:

For Targeted Populations

• Hamilton County, Tenn. will support at least ten justice-involved individuals as they transition to in-personal classes at Chattanooga State Community College to complete credential post-release from Hamilton County Jail and Detention Center each year.
• Lancaster County, Neb. will connect 30 juvenile justice-involved youth engaged in diversion processes to the Lincoln / Lancaster County American Job Center and Southeast Community College each year.
• Warren County, Ohio will prepare at least five local TANF-eligible, high school-aged youth for employment in a highly skilled job (e.g., advanced manufacturing) paying a competitive and living wage by 2028.

For Targeted Jobs

• City and County of Honolulu, Hawai'i will prepare and place at least 30 individuals into City/County of Honolulu positions in technology career pathways (IT, cybersecurity, etc.) aligned with at least 1 Hawai'i DOE high school by end-of-year 2027.
• Saratoga County, N.Y. will prepare a cohort of six students to be employed by a local health care employer (e.g., Saratoga Hospital) through the CAPTAIN-SUNY Adirondack Patient Care Assistant pathway by 2027.

To Improve Operations

• Maricopa County, Ariz. will enroll 50 ARPA-funded Route to Relief community college students in WIOA to expand reach of flexible funding by end-of-year 2025.
• Howard County, Md. will refer at least 70% of clients who are eligible for another service through a cross-sector "Common Application" to another service each year.
• Douglas County, Neb. will observe 36% wage gain at the time of employment placement for individuals referred by the Department of General Assistance compared with earnings at time of referral.