We love getting the opportunity to see our clients in action doing what they do best. On March 2, team members Victoria and Emily joined our client Invest in Skills NY, a coalition of workforce development organizations, at the NY state legislature in Albany for their first Advocacy Day. Over 100 educators, workforce providers and businesses exhibited and participated in legislatives visits with 29 state senators, assembly members and their teams to advocate for Invest in Skills’ collective policy proposals.
It was inspiring to see so many organizations working together to further Invest in Skills NY’s ambitions to build a career pathways system, empower leadership, see state-wide goals and plans, and build 21st-century data infrastructure. It was great to meet so many we had engaged with by phone and email in person and put faces to names!
Over lunch, event sponsors Senators James Sanders Jr. and Jessica Ramos spoke to the group, alongside assembly members Marcus Crespo and Walter Mosley and Madhuri Kommareddi, Workforce Development Director for the Office of NY Governor Andrew Cuomo. It was interesting to hear this issue discussed by lawmakers who understood the economic imperative of a skilled workforce. While they all understood the importance of flexible funding and support for workforce development initiatives, they implored the people in the room to continue to advocate for their individual and collective agendas, because no one understands the needs of their constituents and solutions better than they.