Reach for your toes, reach for the sky, hold for 10 seconds…
This is what Louisville, Kentucky public works employees hear every morning before heading out on their routes.
Granted, it sounds a little odd. But a morning stretch is just one aspect of Louisville’s plan to prevent injuries among its garbage collectors. A little extra agility is never a negative, and over the past two years, city officials have been promoting it with their workers as well as incorporating it into their own policies.
Why?
January 2012 began with 32 percent of Louisville garbage collectors not working or having their duties limited due to serious injuries. Comparably, two years later in January 2014, that number was reduced to 15 percent. This staggering drop is a result of a three-part plan initiated by the city as part of its metrics-driven performance improvement.
Step one is the stretching routine that begins at 6 a.m. sharp every morning. Before the employees head out, all of them — including administrators — join together for a wake-up stretch led by a different designated leader each day. In a circle, everyone participates in the toe touches, jumping jacks, and squats to prepare for the busy day ahead.
Step two is the Accident Review Committee. For the committee, every injury is important, and it reviews each one — leading to a list of suggested measures to prevent them from recurring. Their recommendations are passed to department management who then compiles a final list and passes it down to the staff.
The final step is the modified duty policy. Typically, a worker is out for six to ten weeks following a serious injury. This new policy, though, gives them the option to return to work after one week, performing less strenuous office work.
The beginning of 2012 also saw the formation of the Office of Performance Improvement whose greatest accomplishment is the establishment of the Louie Stat — which increases communication between the mayor and all city departments by holding regular meetings during which relevant metrics are reviewed and plans are established for future improvement.
Just like the workers who wake up every morning to stretch their muscles, Louisville city officials clearly have taken the extra step to expand their programs and influence to benefit their workers.
Tag: employment
In a Bold Move, Chicago Gives DREAMers a Shot at Summer Jobs
Who knows how long congress will continue to drag its feet on immigration reform, but luckily for immigrants across the country, local and state governments have decided they can’t wait.
From coast to coast, Americans are implementing their own reforms, including offering in-state tuition to immigrants, making it easier for them to get a bank account, or even passing their own (non-enforceable) immigration laws. The latest effort in this grassroots immigration reform effort comes from Chicago, where Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced on April 11 that 23,000 city positions will be open to immigrants who were brought here as children.
These immigrants, known as DREAMers for the long-delayed Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act that would provide them with a path to citizenship and access to higher education if it ever passes, can now apply for 30 mayor’s office fellowships, 500 city internships, and 22,000 jobs in the city’s summer jobs program: One Summer Chicago. To qualify, applicants must have been brought to the United States as children, have lived here for five years, and kept out of trouble with the law. The city will publicize the opportunities in neighborhoods with high percentages of immigrants.
“Chicago is a city that was built by immigrants, and I am committed to ensuring that DREAMers have the same opportunities offered by the city to all of Chicago’s youth,” Emanuel said, according to Greg Hinz of Crain’s Chicago Business. “We will open doors to support talented young people.”
MORE: Tired of Waiting for Immigration Reform, One Man is Giving Undocumented Students a Shot at the American Dream
Veterans Ask Employers to Give Them a Chance in This Moving Video
In 2013, the unemployment rate averaged 9 percent for veterans (according to Reuter’s) compared with the current 6.7 percent for all Americans, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While these stats demonstrate the employment difficulties facing many veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, they aren’t nearly as powerful (nor do they bring home the issue of veteran unemployment) as the personal tale of Army veteran Kayla Reyes.
Last week, a video of Reyes talking about how she felt discriminated against because of her service during an interview for a job with Macy’s went viral. Macy’s issued a response and offered her a job, but Reyes had already found a different job, as well as support from thousands of people who don’t want to see veterans treated this way.
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The Call of Duty Endowment, a nonprofit that identifies and provides funding to effective job placement programs for veterans, recently released a moving video of other veterans talking about their difficulties finding employment in the hopes that many of them will achieve the kind of happy ending that Reyes did — and that more employers will become inspired to help vets find jobs.
“I have a purple heart because I was wounded in combat,” one veteran says on the video. ” I thought I was going to bring it in and people would be like, ‘You’re a warrior, that’s pretty awesome! Come on board, you’re good!’ But that wasn’t the case.”
“The jobs weren’t as good as I thought they would be,” a former Marine explains. “You were in the military, perfect. We have a security position. It’s nine dollars an hour. You’ll love it because you get to hold the gun again.”
One veteran says employers seem to have the vision of “Hollywood PTSD” in their heads. “People see these movies with these guys freaking out, and think that I’m the same way.” Another veteran speaks for many when he says, “Give me a chance. Let me prove myself.”
MORE: Does Military Jargon Prevent Vets from Landing Jobs?
The Eco-Friendly Action That Improves the Economy
Recycling has tons of benefits, from reducing the amount of trash sent to landfills to decreasing pollution. But if you need another reason to keep on recycling those cans, bottles and newspapers, here’s another incentive: You’re creating jobs.
As the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) reports, California is a shining example of how recycling is actually doing its part in stimulating the economy. The state is currently trying to reach a recycling goal of 75 percent by 2020, and if it does, 110,000 jobs could be created, according to a study from the Tellus Institute, a non-profit research company. (If you think 75 percent recycling sounds unrealistic, California was already at 50 percent way back in 2011, which puts the state comfortably on track to hit its goal.)
MORE: The Eco-Friendly Plan to Quench Central California’s Thirst
So why would recycling create more jobs? According to the NRDC report, “meeting the 75 percent recycling goal would create more than 34,000 jobs in materials collection, 26,000 jobs in materials processing, and 56,000 jobs in manufacturing using the recovered materials.” Additionally, the report states that these 110,000 jobs would create another 38,600 jobs indirectly — such as recycling-related businesses. The purchasing power of all these new green workers is also certainly going to boost the economy and spur job growth even more.
Just imagine what would happen if the whole country took a page from California and increased recycling on a national scale. A different Tellus report from 2011 actually crunched those numbers, and their findings are just as encouraging. Apparently, if the entire country recycled at a rate of 75 percent by the year 2030, we could reduce greenhouse gases by 515 million metric tons, which is the same as “shutting down about 72 coal-fired power plants or taking 50 million cars off the road,” the NRDC writes. Now that’s a huge incentive to go reduce, reuse and yes, recycle.
Latinos Were Hard Hit by the Recession. Here’s How They’re Fighting Back
The recent recession hit American Latino families especially hard—the Pew Research Center found the median household wealth of Latino families fell more than that of any other group, decreasing 66% between 2005 and 2009, from $18,359 to $6,325. Compounding those losses was a hard hit to industries employing many Latinos, such as construction, hospitality, and domestic services. It left the unemployment rate among Latinos 2% higher than it is for everyone else. Many Latino families are still struggling to regain what they’ve lost.
So the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals is teaming up with Latino business leaders, led by former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros, to start the Hispanic Wealth Project. They will begin by studying the problem, and then by the end of this year develop a plan they hope will help Latino families close the gap and triple their household wealth in ten years.
One major focus will be home ownership. A larger percentage of Latinos with mortgages lost their homes due to foreclosure between 2004 and 2008 than did any other group. In a statement to Griselda Navarez of Voxxi, Gary Acosta, CEO of NAHREP, said the project leaders plan to address “a broad set of factors, like small business growth, savings, education, income, jobs and financial literacy.”
MORE: These Workers are There When We Need Them. Now We’ve Got to Keep Them Safe.
How a Crazy Coat (and a Great Idea) Empowered Homeless Women in Detroit
Among the men and women in Detroit’s homeless shelters, 24-year-old Veronika Scott is known as the “crazy coat lady.” While attending a design activism course at the city’s College of Creative Studies, Scott received an assignment to create something that would “fill a need.” She didn’t have to look very far. “The big moment was seeing a playground 20 feet away from a [homeless] shelter, and this playground had been made into someone’s home,” she says. With this image in mind, Scott designed a winter coat that could convert into a sleeping bag to shield the homeless from bitter Michigan winters. But when she took the prototype to the shelter, the people she hoped to help were disappointed. “We don’t need coats,” Scott recalls one woman telling her. “We need jobs.”
Scott knew that if she wanted to truly help the homeless — more than 20,000 live in Detroit — she needed to rethink her business plan. So she created the Empowerment Plan, a nonprofit that aims to help homeless women build a better life for themselves. Through her organization, Scott hires women who live in shelters — mostly single mothers — and pays them to construct convertible coats, which are then given out to the homeless. Scott now employs 10 formerly homeless women, who are able to produce nearly 600 coats a month. She may be a “coat lady”, but her big idea? Not so crazy after all.
MORE: One 12-Year-Old’s Feet-First Mission to Help the Homeless
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