Mission Statement
Daily Work provides employment services and mentoring so all job seekers can thrive, resulting in a community where everyone can work, grow, and contribute.
Daily Work focuses on employment as a means to long-term self-sufficiency and a thriving life. Employment is not seen in isolation, but as an integral element of a healthy, holistic life experience.
Impact and Programs
Accomplishments
Daily Work had significantly more requests for services in 2023. As of October 31, we have served 235 job seekers (compared to 193 served in total in 2022, a 20 percent increase so far), with more than 50 percent obtaining new employment with an average wage of $18.52. In 2022, we began gathering job seeker feedback through a bi-annual satisfaction survey. In the first three surveys, 92% of job seekers reported that DW helped them in more ways than they expected, 87.8% feel more hopeful about their future, and 94.5% ranked their service from DW as Excellent or Very Good. Also in 2022, 35 volunteers and 12 interns contributed 6,537 hours of service with an estimated value of $207,868 (based on $31.80/hour, the value of volunteer time established annually by Independent Sector). Based on feedback surveys, 100% of volunteers would recommend volunteering at DW to others and 95% of interns report having a positive internship experience. TECI laptops were provided to 23 people in 2022 and we launched bi-monthly computer skills support sessions which continued into 2023.
Current Goals
Our 2023 goals are to: 1) Expand our programs to center the needs of immigrant and refugee job seekers; 2) Promote equity and address systemic barriers to employment by developing capacity and knowledge. As service provider to immigrant communities in the Twin Cities, we see first-hand how so many immigrants, and especially refugees, struggle with finding living wage employment and achieving long-term financial sufficiency that provides the means for having a fulfilling life. Some of the ways we define a fulfilling or thriving life are: living wage employment that meets all basic needs - families can meet their monthly financial obligations and have money leftover; not requiring public assistance benefits; having good choices for housing and healthcare; being able to pursue their own and/or their children’s personal interests such as sports or music. Over the past two years, this need has intensified due to the arrival of roughly 1,700 Afghan and Ukrainian refugees and to the end of Title 42. Due to this, we see an urgent need to expand our work to support people in living thriving lives here in Minnesota. We are expanding our programs to meet these needs, including piloting new activities to support English language learners in obtaining driver’s licenses, learning computer skills, and building connections among immigrants and between immigrants and native-born community members. All activities will be paired with and complemented by our individually tailored case management support. Each job seeker is supported for as long as they desire in developing and proceeding on their pathway towards employment and financial sufficiency.
Community or Constituency Served
Daily Work was founded in 2000 to support people who faced persistent barriers to employment – Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color who faced systemic racism and resulting generational poverty and exclusion from the workforce; immigrants and refugees, who faced language and cultural barriers; and people experiencing homelessness. We are now launching an exciting growth initiative to expand our services specifically for immigrants and refugees, who make up the majority of job seekers we support. Crucially, we are building on our collaborative, person-centered approach to scale our impact, while maintaining our commitment to individualized services that address systemic barriers to employment in addition to meeting each client’s needs.
We developed our relationship-based model to provide individualized support services for people who often fell through the cracks in public agency and employment service organizations because they needed individualized, culturally responsive support, often in multiple areas and for a longer period of time. At DW, services don’t stop when someone gets a job. In fact, that can be when support is needed most. This approach is rapidly collecting evidence for its effectiveness: national studies have found that culturally grounded, strengths-based community support programs improve employment outcomes, reduce social isolation, and improve overall health and wellbeing for marginalized communities.
We are deliberately leveraging our strengths as a trusted partner among immigrant communities in our new strategic plan, which identifies four primary goals: 1) center DW’s focus on immigrant job seekers by strengthening our cultural competency, advancing relationships with other immigrant-centered organizations, and building staff capacity; 2) scale our relational approach by piloting new program activities and documenting our conceptual framework (how we do our work and why); 3) advancing equity and inclusion by removing barriers to employment through innovative programming and community-building rooted in anti-racism and systemic change; 4) Build organizational resiliency.
Geographic Area Served
Daily Work serves the Twin Cities metro area, with 65 percent of job seekers hailing from Ramsey County.
