Senador Friedman no 10º aniversário do Workforce Skills Group
By Senator Cindy Friedman
Video Transcription
The value that Workforce Solutions Group brings is a united voice to the table, around workforce development, workforce training, especially for those who are underserved, or who don’t usually have a place at the table. The coalition that they build is really critical to representing the needs of that community. I look at jobs as one of those fundamental needs of living, and we need shelter, we need food, and we need a way to take care of ourselves. And having a stable job is critical to that. A way to provide for yourself or your family or and your family is a fundamental need. And there are so many people that don’t have access to the workforce of today, or as a workforce evolves, they don’t have access to that they don’t have doors to enter. I think that was why it was so important to Senator Donnelly, that he really felt it was a justice issue. And it was also a survival issue that we need to make sure that people have stable jobs and incomes, where they can support themselves and their families. And I absolutely believe in that as well.
That’s why I think workforce development and workforce training is so important. A structure that people can believe in, and that has a track record of being used wisely, efficiently, and to the benefit of the people who it was set up to serve. The fact that it is for the most part maintained by Commonwealth Corporation gives a comfort level to all of us that the right things are being done. I think Commonwealth Corporation has proven over and over again, that they have been really phenomenal stewards of that money.
Especially, I think we need to increase our vocational opportunities for people that we need to use the best practices that we have around the Commonwealth, for successful Voc Ed, and ensure that everybody has access to it, everyone who wants it. It really brings the work and school together in a way that really benefits people, especially if they’re not traditional learners, where they sit down at a desk and memorize things, but they’re doers, and they need to be involved. That’s really, really important.
We need to, at the same time that we’re increasing workforce training opportunities, we really need to start looking at the social determinants of health, because so many people who are in that gap, or in that place where it’s hard to access, good work at good wages, are people who have been part of the social determinants of health that decide that you won’t be as healthy. Your ability to take care of yourself will be compromised because of so much of what’s happened to you, as a child or in your teenage years.
If we don’t start to actually address those issues, we’re always going to be playing catch up with people to try and get them to try and solve a problem that we should have solved a long time ago for them. So it’s not only is it the morally right thing to do, but it is it’s the economically right thing to do that if we can have kids growing up in stable environments, where can we reduce trauma where we can ensure they have health care where we can make sure people have good decent food on the table that will all allow these kids to grow up and be able to participate in the workforce of today in the future,
Those things become really important and they need to go hand in hand with our workforce training. I am happy that it’s the 10th anniversary of Workforce Solutions Group and I want to wish all of you another 10 years and to applaud you and tell you how proud I am to have been part of your work in any way, shape, or form. Thank you.