Articles and Publications Designed to Encourage Transformation and Continuous Improvement
White Paper 1
A Social Capital Framework:
When young people are disconnected and underserved, they need more than just a credential to achieve long-term labor market success. They need a connection. A Social Capital Framework breaks down why many workforce development efforts struggle to engage youth and place them in career-related occupations. This paper offers insight into the promise of building social capital as a systemic and programmatic strategy to usher youth successfully through workforce development systems and into relevant labor markets.
High levels of social capital foster the spark that youth need to blaze a pathway to long-term career success. Without this spark, most young people say, “Why bother?” Just look at the decreasing labor market participation rates. High levels of social capital serve as the impetus young people need for investing in training, skills, and positive lifestyles by linking them to assets on the other side of the labor market who can help them put their new achievements to work. Learn why we say “connections before the credential” – and develop a framework to make it happen.
White Paper 2
Measuring Social Capital:
Networking is an activity; social capital is an outcome. In Measuring Social Capital, we examine just why networking alone doesn’t cut it when trying to connect young people to future economic opportunities. In this paper, you’ll find more than just the differences between social capital and networking; you’ll learn how a social capital framework can help organizations establish better connections to communities, especially youth programs and the young people they serve. You’ll also find a sample self-audit to help organizations uncover gaps in their social capital strategy – and how that may be impeding their ability to reach and engage some communities. Measuring Social Capital outlines DeJesus Solutions’ exclusive CARTI method that lays out the five facets of building social capital: compassion, assistance, reciprocity, trust, and information. These five pillars make social capital easily measurable and attainable, setting a framework for communities, organizations, and employers alike to enjoy lasting, community-invested success.
Survey
Is Compassion an Important Factor in Workforce Success? A New Survey Suggests So.
A newly-released DeJesus Solutions survey asked 633 individuals about their experiences with social capital in the workforce. The results were astounding. According to their responses, social capital is the key to workforce success: 39% of respondents said they landed their first job through a connection – that’s someone they know, or someone who knows someone they know. Once employed, that number jumped: 44% of respondents say they got their current job thanks to a connection. That’s more than double the percentage of respondents who got their hired through a job board like Linkedin, Indeed, or Monster. At the core of these connections was trust. Out of all the interviewees, 56% agreed that trust was the primary motivator for getting hired through connections – a promising statistic supporting efforts to build up inter-community relationships and social capital.
FREE CARTI EXERCISE: Help Participants Understand the Importance of CARTI's Second Pillar of Social Capital - Assistance.