It Takes a Community: Ensuring WIOA Planning and Implementation Lead to Greater Economic Opportunity for Adults and Youth Facing Chronic Unemployment

The passage and implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) has the potential to catalyze efforts in local communities and states to address the employment needs and interests of a greater share of adults and youth facing barriers to employment and to develop a more comprehensive and aligned public workforce system to meet these jobseekers' needs.Realizing these goals, however, will require concerted and deliberate efforts by local communities and states acting in partnership with a number of stakeholders and public systems. Leveraging the local and state planning processes and other opportunities embedded in WIOA, this brief aims to provide stakeholders with ideas and actionable recommendations for helping to ensure that the public workforce system under WIOA increases employment and economic opportunity for jobseekers facing barriers to employment.