What is the Rural Workforce Collaborative Program?

The Rural Workforce Collaborative Program assists with key planning, programming, and development of projects.

About Rural Works in St. Bernard Parish

Through the LISC Rural Works program, leading organizations and employers in St. Bernard Parish have the opportunity to work as a group to shape the future of workforce development in St. Bernard. This will ensure the best possible outcome for our residents, students, and employers and create much-needed pathways to success and prosperity.  

While LISC will be available to provide technical support and guidance, we will be entirely in charge of what we want our collaborative to look like. Whether we meet once a month, or once a week, that is up to us. As a collaborative, we will be able to use funds from LISC to assist with key planning, programming, and development of projects. In addition, we will be able to apply for funding through grant programs and request guidance from LISC about additional funding sources. 

About Rural LISC

Rural LISC is working to help workers earn the skills and credentials to prosper in their educational attainment and livable wage careers.  Our efforts will lead to a vibrant economy in rural America that leads to quality workforce pools for employers and prosperous communities that not only sustains the next generation of rural Americans but also attracts lost populations back to their roots.    

Rural Works is the first of its kind - national community of practice of rural demonstration cities addressing the need for workforce collaboratives.     

Rural LISC will work with community development corporations as hubs to increase the scale at which they serve rural populations with education and workforce development to meet the needs of regional economies spread across a wide and diverse geography.  Rural LISC will also leverage our role as a national intermediary to bring industry-recognized models to hard-to-reach populations and increase the talent pipelines that serve employers and further creates economic mobility for the rural poor.  Rural LISC will further concentrate on marginalized populations such as women, people of color, and youth, which are often the backbones of our communities in the Delta, Colonias Communities, Appalachia, the Great Plains, the Central Valley, and Native Nations.