The Problem
For the past 30 years, foundations and government have invested billions in education and workforce development yet significant opportunity and equity gaps remain
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Despite largescale investments to remake our K-12 and higher education systems to help more students succeed, there have been very limited outcomes in terms of closing the opportunity gap, raising college readiness, expanding college access, and boosting completion. We are left with a reality where:
The advent of the pandemic has exacerbated these issues – leading to a loss of nearly 10M jobs from the economy, widening racial gaps in unemployment rates, and a starker realization that our systems are not set up to support the skill development required for a full recovery of the economy.
The Opportunity Pathways Network (OPeN) seeks to build a future where pathways to economic mobility mean no one who graduates high school will hit a dead end
OPeN works alongside funders to generate and invest in solutions to systemic challenges in the education-workforce field
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OPeN's overarching vision is the creation of equitable systems that cultivate learner-empowered, industry-aligned, and permeable pathways for education and skill-building that support economic mobility and stability across a lifetime – with a particular emphasis on historically underrepresented populations (e.g., Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian/Pacific Islander opportunity seekers).
We do this by aligning around a shared understanding of collective action problems, identifying places of alignment across multiple viable investment approaches, and intentionally elevating racial equity principles and practices in everything we do.
OPeN embeds three core racial equity principals throughout all aspects of our work, with the goal of altering philanthropic practices to promote racial equity in the education-to-workforce pathways​
Develop explicit definitions and understanding related to racial equity and center the voices of people of color
Proximity
•Use asset-based, race-explicit, and systemic frames and language to describe workers, learners, and job candidates of color
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•Build knowledge of, connection to, and mutual trust with communities most impacted by the social change issues OPeN seeks to address, through intentional learning and investment
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•Recognize that the United States cannot train its way out of economic inequity, and therefore support multiple strategies focus on economic mobility to meet the needs of job candidates, learners, and workers of color in rural and urban communities
Building systemic infrastructure to invest in leaders of color and decrease systemic barriers to capital
Process
•Design processes that correct for historic inequities and break traditional barriers to capital in the field
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•Fund Black, Latinx, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Indigenous leaders and communities with the lived experience of racial oppression to create the most direct path to ensuring solutions will truly address the challenges experienced
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•Ensure funding is planned and sustained over years, so Black, Latinx, and Indigenous leaders can focus on delivering supports and innovating to meet the needs of the communities they serve
Create racial equity goals to ensure progress is measured over time
•Commit to diversify the giving portfolio to ensure diversity metrics are tracked over time and to remain accountable
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•Measure racial equity goals using rigorous data that is explicitly disaggregated by race and ethnicity
•Center the perspectives of workers, learners, and job candidates of color in measuring the impact of investments
Accountability
Our Process
Our innovation cycle brings together funders to design, validate, and support shared solutions for collective action challenges
OPeN works with funder across the innovation cycle in order to ensure that the solutions brought to the table are grounded in reality and each funders' individual capabilities are best positioned to effect systemic change.
Throughout the course of the innovation cycle, we work with funders to identify collective action problem areas where OPeN can play an additive role in advancing the field. These concept notes are formed into working groups, in which funders work together to generate solutions and conceptualize strategies.
Through extensive review of funder strategy documents, expert interviews, and data analysis, OPeN identified three collective action areas
Building a skills and competency-based program model ecosystem rooted in quality
Accelerating cross-system integration and infrastructure development
Enabling integrated Federal and state-level policy agendas that support pathways across all ages
