Initiatives

HIRE DC

About this Initiative

Year Started:

2010

Initiative stage:

Implementing and Sustaining Impact

Location:

Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America (the), Mid-Atlantic (DE, DC, MD, NJ, NY, PA)

Initiative Purpose and Goals:

The purpose of HIRE DC (Helping Individuals Reach Employment) is to create, implement and sustain a shared database system that can be used by multiple DC workforce development agencies to:

Increase inter-agency collaboration,
Coordinate services and remove client’s employment barriers,
Increase impact and
Improve data reporting and quality.

The system was developed with smaller organization in mind; many of which do not have adequate database systems to track success or measure organizational impact. The system was launched in 2015 and curently has four partner organizations and nearly 3,000 client records entered onto the system. More information can be found at hiredc.org

Initiative website:

http://www.hiredc.org

Collective Impact Elements in Place

Common Agenda

Continuous Communication

Shared Measurement

Backbone Support

Mutually Reinforcing Activities

Backbone Support

Organizations serving in the Backbone Role

Backbone organizations include the three founding organizations: Byte Back (byteback.org), Southeast Ministry (southeastministrydc.org), and Samaritan Ministry of Greater Washington (samaritanministry.org). In 2015, Skyland Workforce Center (skylandworkforcecenter.org)

In addition, the Jovid Foundation's (jovid.org) executive director provided support and coordination for this project during its inception, design, and launch.

Backbone structure

HIRE DC is technically a project of The Work Place DC (workplacedc.org). Initially significant backbone support was provided by the Jovid Foundation--both financial support and technical assistance from its executive director.

Once the project was launched, the four HIRE DC partner organizations formed a Steering Committee which now handles oversight for the project. Jovid Foundation's backbone role has transitioned and its executive director is focusing on providing guidance to help ensure the project's business model is sustainable.

Measures of Success

Key measures include:

Identify employment barriers and number removed due to the Collaborative's efforts,
Number of clients who receive services from more than one HIRE DC partner,
Number improving job skills (e.g., passing computer class, advancing one or more grade levels in readinig or math, etc),
Number obtaining high school diploma or GED,
Number receiving certifications,
Number umemployed who successfully obtain full-time or part-time employment,
Number of those employed who demonstrate employment advancement,
Number retainining employment 3, 6, and 9 months.

Initiative Activities and Milestones

Milestones

To-date HIRE DC has:

Raised over $70k from funders
Launched the database in 2015
Hired a part-time system administrator
Upgraded the system with an emphasis on continued improvement
Entered nearly 3,000 clients onto the system

During the next twelve months, the initiative has the following goals:

Onboard at least two additional partner agencies
Improve the overall efficiency of the system
Begin tracking in earnest progress toward shared outputs and outcomes.

Community Engagement and Advancing Equity

Activities to Advance Equity

HIRE DC was developed to tackle to types of equity issues for two audiences:

Small Nonprofit Organizations: It is not uncommon for smaller nonprofit organizations to either lack a database system altogether or if they do have one, not have the internal capacity to fully use the system. Thus, many smaller organizations are unable to share the impact of their efforts with the community-at-large, including potential investors.
Clients: Often it takes the efforts of more than one workforce development organization to help make an individual job ready and then successfully obtain and retain employment. In DC, it can be difficult to coordinate services between workforce development organizations equipped to help an individual. The HIRE DC database was designed to help better coordinate services between partner agencies with the goal of reducing the amount of time a client schleps across town only to discover that the agency is not open or does not have the services needed.

Initiative Partners and Governance

Contributing organizations

HIRE DC has received funding support from:

The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region
United Way of the National Captial Regin
Jovid Foundation

Pro-bono support has been received from:

Compass DC (database platform identification and recommendation)
Taproot (initial database design)
Covington and Burling (legal support)

Sectors Engaged

Nonprofit

Philanthropic Funders

Initiative governance

At present, HIRE DC is overseen by a Steering Committee which includes the executive director from each partner organization. The Steering Committee's chair manages the System Administrator (part-time consultant).

Resources

HIRE DC diagrgam.pdf

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