Our Work

Zone Work

New Options helps untapped talent gain marketable skills and build bridges to employers eager for a more prepared workforce. Work zones are used to create and test innovative products and market-based approaches that provide pathways to employment, which are supported by national initiatives and movement building to influence perceptions. The following zones are part of the New Options Project:

Anchor organizations lead each work zone and provide a foundation for developing and testing a set of innovative tools and approaches. New Options is not focused on housing these tools and approaches within particular organizations, however. Each zone is ultimately seeking to create solutions that respond to market demand. If the tools and approaches deliver impact and results, they will be adopted by others and pulled into the marketplace at a greater scale than would ever be possible within the context of a single organization.

Each zone is testing a specific hypothesis and has a unique point of view on what it takes to:

  • Fundamentally shift how the individuals and systems surrounding disconnected young adults operate
  • Connect disconnected young adults with jobs
  • Incentivize employers to hire disconnected young adults
  • Provide alternatives to traditional degrees that are more effective in getting disconnected young adults onto the first rung of the career ladder

Enterprising Pathways Partners

New Options Project

Opportunity Nation

W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Year Up

Workforce Readiness Blog Posts

  • 04/10/2013
    New Demos Report Highlights Young America’s Growing Jobs Crisis
    Data Supports Corporate Voices’ Ongoing Efforts to Strengthen America’s Businesses and Job-Seeking Young Adults Through Smarter Workforce Training Investments Last week, Demos, a New York-based  non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization, released its report, Stuck: Young America’s Persistent Jobs Crisis, highlighting the current youth employment crisis in the United States and examining how the [...]
    Complete Post
  • 03/28/2013
    Corporate Voices Highlights Corporate Leadership Beyond the Workplace
    Corporate Voices for Working Families’ 2013 Annual Partners Meeting put the spotlight last week  on corporate leadership beyond the workplace, providing presentations rich in content, lively discussions and opportunities for attendees to network with other business leaders and policymakers.
    Complete Post
  • 02/14/2013
    Corporate Voices’ Reaction to the State of the Union Address
    Domestic policy was front and center during the first State of the Union Address of President Obama’s second term. The President spent most of his speech calling for tax and entitlement reform, spending on education and energy, gun control and immigration reform. One item of particular importance to Corporate Voices and its partner companies was [...]
    Complete Post
more