Michigan Receives $750,000 To Support Workers Accessing Good Jobs In Infrastructure, Clean Energy 

The Families and Workers Fund is a platform for collective action and a pooled $125+ million collaborative fund chaired by the Ford Foundation and supported by 40 diverse funders working together to build a more equitable economy that uplifts all. The Fund deploys catalytic partnerships and collaboration across philanthropy, government, and the private sector to develop a more inclusive, effective public benefits system and to advance jobs that sustain and uplift people. To date, the Fund has committed more than $52 million in grants and strategic partnerships, directly impacted 1.4 million people. 

As the Economic Transition Office works to embed job quality standards throughout worker-targeted programs, ensuring that transition-impacted workers have meaningful access to good paying, high skill clean energy and infrastructure jobs, they will use these funds to leverage LEO’s workforce system capacity and sector partnerships by engaging employers and creating industry- and company-specific job quality assessments to highlight the benefits high quality jobs bring to workers’ families and the economy.  

After developing and testing this framework during the grant term, the Economic Transition Office will work with other Michigan departments and agencies to adopt similar standards, maximizing the benefits of generational infrastructure and clean energy investments and positively impacting at least 30,000 Michigan workers annually over the next five years.   

The project complements the Governor’s recent infrastructure workforce directive to help train 5,000 new infrastructure workers by 2030. Grant activities will help inform Michigan’s statewide infrastructure workforce strategy and ensure that Michigan continues leading the way in workforce development.