How do you bridge the gap between poverty and gainful employment so people can support their family? …and what is businesses responsibility. Business, education and community service organizations took on the topic at Centerstate C-E-O Wednesday. V-P of Economic Inclusion Dominick Robinson says poverty issues are often thought of as problems for the government and non-profits to solve. However, he says investment in the companies and the employees can help change economic disparity.
“We heard today about businesses that are making strategic investments in neighborhoods where they’ll be close to people who are living in low-income conditions and therefor provide access t hose people who can get jobs in those companies more easily. It has to start with economic growth, specifically in our urban core.”
Robinson says there are some very specific things business can offer to pave the way to employment…and out of poverty.
“We heard about the really critical need for child care support for employees who have a hard time managing the challenges of raising and family and going to work. How do we provide a better system to provide child care in ways that actually benefit employers and create a more productive work environment and allow them to retain their employees more effectively.”
Education is also a part of the discussion. University College at Syracuse University Dean Bea Gonzalez suggests companies network with educational institutions to help lift people out of poverty.
“Once you get them, the next thing is higher education, because then you’re really changing the life-cycle of that entire family forever.”
Additional jobs can be offered to those in communities dealing with poverty. The Department of Labor’s Juanita Perez-Williams encourages businesses that are doing so, to ask their colleagues to visit and get involved.
“And see the real poverty that’s here. As a business, that perhaps is even hiring people from these communities and not even having an interest. Come down here because your colleagues tell you, ‘we’re doing it and you should do it too’.”
Last year, Syracuse was flagged in a study as having some of the highest-in-the-nation poverty among Blacks and Hispanics in certain areas of the city.