Anatomy of a Dollar, Part I: Report Maps Workforce Development Resources

By Kimberly Schneider

As the City of Portland's elected official on Worksystem's Board of Directors, Sam had a simple question: How many of the resources devoted to "Workforce Development Services" get to clients? In other words, what percent of every dollar is actually spent on services in our region - and what percent is used to administer those funds?

The answer, it turns out, is complex. Worksystems Inc. hired ECONorthwest to inventory funding sources and providers of workforce development services Multnomah and Washington counties and to reveal resource allocation across key strategic areas. ECONorthwest completed the first part of their report - the "resource map" -- in April of this year.

Among the findings:

Nearly 80 organizations -- including community colleges, state and local government agencies, and nonprofits -- provide services in the region.
Over $150 million go towards workforce development services
Worksystems Inc. provides 11% of the total resources
Of the total investment, 72% come from federal dollars, 34% from the State, 37% from local jurisdictions and 6% from all other (including private foundations and fund raising efforts).

ECONorthwest will build upon this foundation -- or "resource map" -- to create a visual "anatomy of the workforce dollar." The anatomy will trace workforce investments as they flow from high-level funding sources (e.g., Workforce Investment Act, State General Fund) through fiscal intermediaries (e.g., Worksystems, Inc.) to direct expenditures by service providers (non-profits, human services agencies, and others).

The resource map identified the source and destination of workforce investments in Region 2. The anatomy builds on this work to give policymakers a valuable reference with which to better understand the complexity of the Region 2 system and the way that disparate funding streams overlap and compliment each other.

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