Our Work
Here are some of our latest projects
Workforce Transformation Corps Fellowship
Where things were: In early 2021, with funding and support from the James Irvine Foundation, a group of partners that included Turning Basin Labs, Make Fast Studio, Jobs for the Future, the California Workforce Association, and CivicMakers set out to explore the degree to which human-centered design principles were present in workforce development boards across California and the country. The goal of this work was to develop a set of tools to help guide workforce development boards towards discovering a more empathetic organizational body language. We hypothesized that by changing this body language, and the practices and policies that underlie it, workforce boards will deliver more equitable and meaningful outcomes to those they serve. With insights gained from interviews with workforce development board leaders, community-based organizations, and workers, we developed a “maturity model” that maps behaviors along a spectrum of customer and community engagement.
What was needed: Now, to help solve the deep structural barriers facing the public workforce system, our partnership is operationalizing the maturity model by embedding full-time design-thinking fellows into five California workforce development boards for a period of 12 months. Workforce Transformation Fellows bring their backgrounds and lived experience to help catalyze lasting shifts in behavior, practice, and operations within regional workforce systems. Fellows will use human-centered design principles to more closely align the policies, procedures, and products of a local workforce development board to the needs of individuals in their communities, particularly those earning lower wages.
TBL in action: TBL led the hiring process, engaging over 70 applicants before ultimately deciding on the five to make offers to. We developed a highly structured, efficient system of interviewing candidates, involving feedback from Jobs from the Future and Make Fast Studio in the process. Through the recruitment process, we also helped identify key supports that the fellows would need over the duration of their fellowship. We were able to complete the hiring and onboarding process in time for all five fellows to attend the fellowship launch in the first week of February 2023.
What happened next: The fellows engaged with their respective workforce boards throughout 2023 and completed a capstone project summarizing their work at the end of their year. Read this blog post from CivicMakers that summarizes the Innovation Showcase event which wrapped up the fellowship project.
DC PAR
Where things were: Washington DC’s local government was struggling to navigate post-pandemic economic recovery and broader workforce development issues. We knew the pandemic had affected disenfranchised communities in seen and unseen ways
What was needed: TBL decided to come together with a number of community-based organizations (CBOs) and partners to push for change in the DC workforce system and economy. This project sought to involve workers and community members directly and follow their leadership, by conducting surveys and interviews with DC community members. Our goal for this research was to come up with ideas that make it easier for people in the DC community to have financial security, paying close attention to their experience with employment, government assistance, and mutual aid.
TBL in action: TBL helped train the community researchers who were interviewing folks in their DC communities on research methods and ethics. Then, following the data collection, TBL led the process to review data, synthesize findings, and generate insights. This involved data analysis and interpretation in coordination with the CBOs. TBL participated in a report-back with the research participants to share our preliminary findings and then contributed to the final report and presentation.
What happened next: The project resulted in at least six ideas for demands and campaigns going forward. Some key issues raised were the need for a higher minimum wage, untreated anxiety and other mental health problems caused by and exacerbated by economic insecurity, the devastating impact of the pandemic on financial savings, and the inadequacy of government and other structural supports.
Worker Council Project
Where things were: In May of 2022, TBL in partnership with Jobs for the Future began an initiative designed to engage Worker Experts (WEs) with frontline work experience at F1000 companies to describe issues related to the lack of Worker Voice in the workplace and draft a set of suggested ways workers and companies could respond to this situation. To this end, we created a Worker Council.
What was needed: A Worker Council would be composed of 10 Worker Experts. TBL was in charge of interviewing and hiring 10 WEs from across the country to participate in this pilot program. Once hiring was completed, TBL served as Employer of Record throughout the project. JFF led the corporate recruitment process. They were to reachout, recruit, and engage F1000 companies to participate.
TBL in action: TBL’s primary mission was to source WEs and codesign, launch, and support a Worker Council. This was done by identifying workers' needs at the beginning of the project and, in weekly check ins, providing training in technical skills, computers, data collection through research, and soft skills. TBL also brought in guest speakers to provide a deep dive into skills to effectively communicate with corporate leaders.
What happened next: The culmination of the project was bringing the Worker Council and corporate leaders together in a Discovery Interview to address and discuss compensation, power dynamics, and communication in the workplace. Read a full report on the project here. Creating recommendations and identifying strategies and tactics from now to next made for a great start to an ongoing discussion. A phase II of a Worker Council is being considered.
High Road Employment Project
Where things were: In 2020, the TBL team came together with colleagues to explore the question of job quality and what good employment models were worth investing in.
What was needed: To achieve this, we engaged and hired 4 worker researchers to play key roles in a participatory community-driven research process.
TBL in action: We built our Worker Research team and set up a 12-person Advisory Council to help steer the work. The team engaged over 50 workers across California in a 6-month period. We learned that people want to reimagine their career and career progression; we also developed a framework for a better employment model and approach, and finally we defined what it meant to invest in such models.
What happened next: Our team developed a report and delivered an engaging closing event. We built plans to create a fund to invest in employment models identified through our work, and now we have refocused the work to do more research and build a greater evidence base.