Ensure Access to Employment &
Good Jobs for Everyone in Detroit
Everyone who wants to work in Detroit should have access to a job, yet too many people are left behind. And we should work to ensure that every job is a quality job that is safe and pays a thriving wage. Today, we have a shortage of good jobs in our city and too many Black and Latinx Detroiters work in jobs with inadequate pay, few benefits, and insufficient career pathways.
To ensure that our city is a place where anyone who wants to work can access good jobs, we must:
01. Expand transitional jobs programs to any Detroiter who wants to work.
Transitional jobs programs are defined as wage-paid, real work opportunities that typically target individuals facing barriers to employment. Transitional jobs programs leverage public, private, and non-profit job opportunities and can utilize a work-crew, individual placement, or social enterprise structures. Transitional jobs programs typically are time limited and can create direct pathways to permanent employment with the same employer or another employer. These programs have been called publicly funded jobs programs, subsidized employment programs, and other names. They have over 50 years of implementation and research evidence as a model that increases employment and earnings, decreases recidivism and homelessness, bolsters efforts to reduce gun violence, and supports employers and communities. The strategy is adaptable and scalable and has been leveraged in robust ways in cities across the country as a core part of the workforce and employment ecosystem. Detroit has had experience implementing transitional jobs programs, but with limited long-term success. We call on the next Mayor to radically reimagine the role that transitional jobs programs could have in the city and for residents. First, we call on the Mayor's Office to partner with residents, philanthropy, providers, advocates, and others to co-design a citywide transitional jobs model with residents’ voice at the forefront. The city should explore a myriad of federal, state, and city funding streams that can sustainably fund a transitional jobs program.
Transportation, and the lack of it, has long been identified as one of the most significant barriers standing in the way of forward movement for Detroit job seekers and workers, the majority who leave the city each day for work. The next Mayor of Detroit has the opportunity to be bold and visionary and see transportation as both a critical residential service and a tool for job creation. We need thoughtful, innovative, and long-term strategy to address the operations and access needs of Detroiters, and the needs of current and future DDOT workers. First, we call on the next Mayor of Detroit to address the issues of transportation access and services: ●Invest in long-term planning for transit-oriented development that builds the vibrant corridors Detroit deserves. ●Make a first class transit system that residents and workers are proud to use every day. Bus stop facilities should provide riders with the dignity they deserve, like heated shelters, live bus tracking, Wi-Fi access, and a clean place to sit. ●Transit schedules and routes should be designed to meet the needs of residents and workers through deep engagement with the community. ●Residents deserve “last mile" solutions to make sure that people or businesses embedded in residential neighborhoods can also access major routes more easily. ●Address cost issues, like providing free transit to all residents under 18, regardless of education enrollment or free transit for residents transitioning into work. Second, we encourage the next Mayor to leverage the variety of jobs within our Department of Transportation (DDOT) to provide good careers and job growth for Detroiters: ●Increase the job quality for DDOT staff, inclusive of pay and benefits, to keep good staff at DDOT and provide the family-thriving wage they deserve. ●Build on existing efforts and build a comprehensive municipal career pathway model in partnership with Amalgamated Transit Union that positions Detroiters to take critical roles within DDOT, including those who are justice-impacted. ●Engage residents to develop a recruitment pathway that engages all residents into occupations throughout the department, not just drivers and mechanics. ●Partner with our regional transit agencies to build an overall transportation sector strategy and position Detroiters to grow in their career across the broader transit ecosystem in SE Michigan.
02. Ensure public transportation options that get Detroiters conveniently to their jobs and leverage the power of transit to create good jobs.
03. Advance a comprehensive initiative to advance business owner succession planning and job preservation in Detroit.
Michigan faces a critical economic and social turning point as a growing number of aging small business owners near retirement without succession plans. With over 80% of these owners lacking a clear exit strategy, nearly 400,000 jobs in Metro Detroit—and 1 million statewide—are at risk due to potential business closures or sales to external parties. This massive wealth transfer is often called the “Silver Tsunami”. Transitioning these businesses to employee ownership represents a powerful yet underutilized strategy to preserve local jobs, maintain our commercial corridors, industry preservation (like smaller manufacturers), build community wealth, and create more equitable and resilient communities. Detroit is not immune to this future. We urge the next Mayor to support an ecosystem where these strategies can thrive and Detroit workers have the knowledge, resources, and support to transition their employer into a worker-owner model. Business owners can also leave a legacy of a thriving business behind when they decide to retire or move on. Ultimately, this is a win for Detroit businesses, workers, economic development, and the local economy. We encourage the next Mayor to engage with and listen to workers and business owners to determine their interests and needs as it relates to business ownership succession, employee co-ownership with the goal of advancing the following priorities: ●Support the development of a suite of education and resources for stakeholders and practitioners in Detroit who are interested in business owner succession models and help foster coordinated efforts to advance worker ownership initiatives in Detroit; ●Establish a grant for technical assistance for business owners interested in succession planning and selling the business to Detroit workers; and ●Establish a self-renewing fund to convert Detroit businesses to worker ownership models.
Too many Detroiters – especially Black and Latino residents and women – work in low-paying jobs with few benefits and too few opportunities for career advancement. Universal Basic Employment (or a jobs guarantee) is about creating a sustainable wage job for all – and the best simultaneous investment in people, places, and businesses. It is a policy idea that has been championed for nearly 100 years as a transformational way to reduce poverty, bolster the availability and demand to create good jobs in a region, and attract people to a community. As this idea gains traction in places like Cleveland, Detroit has an opportunity to be at the forefront of innovation and access to opportunity for all Detroiters. We urge the city of Detroit to learn from Cleveland’s experience and advance a human-centered, co-created process for building and implementing a guaranteed jobs pilot project in Detroit.
04. Pilot a guaranteed jobs program.
05. Establish a Detroit Civic Corps.
Detroit has community-focused and community-invested people talent in spades. As a city, we will grow and prosper as they prosper. However, all too often we do not strategically invest in our residents as the next public and nonprofit system leaders or community builders. We call on the next Mayor of Detroit to establish a 21st Century Detroit Civic Corps that is public and privately funded. The Corps should employ and train Detroit leaders who are often already leading on their blocks or in their neighborhoods on an unpaid volunteer basis to further understand neighborhood needs, local and community policies, and to continue to invest in their communities. The Civic Corps could be deployed to address neighborhood blight, environmental concerns, retrofit public buildings, or support civic engagement of residents. The Corps could be a hub for leaders to better understand local issues, gain critical skills that benefit their communities and careers, and build the social capital often needed to advance in careers. Finally, the Civic Corps could be a hub where leaders learn from and build upon policy and practice innovation in Detroit, across Michigan, and elsewhere - thus continuing to establish a backbone and infrastructure to support Detroit as an epicenter of economic justice innovation. Special attention should be paid to supporting individuals in advancing in their careers in public, nonprofit, academic, and private sectors in order to bring their knowledge about community needs and policies that affect them into decision making bodies affecting the city.