Explanation
This ordinance authorizes the City Clerk to enter into a contract with ThriveIN LLC to operate their WorkSpace Program. WorkSpace is a professional development, career accelerator program for Gen Z and millennial Black women and women of color.
The contract with ThriveIN will expand the WorkSpace program, which will provide participants with in-person and virtual programming, mentor-matchmaking, and job training. In addition to professional development activities, WorkSpace will work alongside corporations to recruit and promote additional talented women of color. Their program includes 8-12 months of professional development for a cohort of up to 50 women. In additional to mentoring and personal development opportunities, WorkSpace includes networking opportunities and a unique job portal for women in the program.
WorkSpace is currently the only professional development program in Columbus actively targeting and supporting Gen Z and Millennial black women. Because black women face disproportionate barriers to career advancement, including being made 37% less than white men, this programming is essential to the promotion of pathways out of poverty and to equitable workforce development in Columbus. These services cannot be provided by current City employees at this time.
Emergency action is necessary to ensure timely financial support ahead of the end of the City’s fiscal year and in advance of the WorkSpace program at the beginning of 2023.
Fiscal Impact: Funding is available within the Job Growth subfund.
Title
To authorize the City Clerk to enter into a contract with ThriveIN LLC to operate the WorkSpace program; to authorize an appropriation and expenditure within the Job Growth subfund; and to declare an emergency. ($30,000.00)
Body
WHEREAS, Columbus City Council seeks to promote policies and programs that support economic stability and that engage partners to serve the evolving needs of Columbus’ diverse population; and
WHEREAS, Black women are promoted at only a third of the rate of white men, are paid $0.63 for every dollar paid to white men, and are hired after graduation at nearly half the rate of white women; and
WHEREAS, WorkSpace is a professional development, career accelerator program for Gen Z and millennial Black women and women of color that prioritizes career advancement for young women of color by providing skills, networks, mentors, allies, and strategies that equip them to succeed; and
WHEREAS, an emergency exists in the usual daily operation of the Clerk's Office in that it is immediately necessary to authorize the Clerk to enter into this agreement to ensure timely financial support ahead of the end of the City’s fiscal year and in advance of the WorkSpace program at the beginning of 2023; NOW, THEREFORE,
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
SECTION 1. That the City Clerk is hereby authorized to enter into contract with ThriveIN LLC to operate the WorkSpace program.
SECTION 2. That the City Auditor is hereby authorized and directed to appropriate $30,000.00 in the Job Growth subfund, fund 1000, subfund 100015, to Columbus City Council per the accounting codes in the attachment to this ordinance.
SECTION 3. That per the action authorized in Section 1 of this ordinance, the expenditure of $30,000.00, or so much thereof as necessary, is hereby authorized in the Job Growth subfund, fund 1000, subfund 100015, per the accounting codes in the attachment to this ordinance.
SECTION 4. That the City Auditor is authorized to make any accounting changes to revise the funding source for all contracts or contract modifications associated with this ordinance.
SECTION 5. That the funds necessary to carry out the purpose of this ordinance are hereby deemed appropriated, and the City Auditor shall establish such accounting codes as necessary.
SECTION 6. That for the reasons stated in the preamble hereto, which is hereby made a part hereof, this ordinance is hereby declared to be an emergency measure and shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and approval by the Mayor or ten days after passage if the Mayor neither approves nor vetoes the same.