In response to the growing unemployment and small business collapse in New York City as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Goodwill Industries of Greater NY and Northern NJ, Inc. (Goodwill NYNJ) joined over 80 leaders from the private and human services sectors to partnered as the NY Workforce Recovery Strategy Group to develop a recovery plan centered on small businesses and workforce development for displaced workers and marginalized communities.

The recovery plan outlines specific policy and investment recommendations for City leadership to empower NYC communities and businesses that have been hardest hit by this pandemic and the systemic marginalization and disinvestment that existed prior to and has been compounded by the pandemic, while building the foundation of a 21st century local, interconnected and participatory economy that provides resiliency and well-being for all.

This group of leaders and experts has developed recommendations urging the de Blasio administration to prioritize NYC’s recovery efforts in the following areas:

• Education & Training Ecosystem for the Displaced Workforce & Marginalized Communities
• Rebuilding through Public Works & Direct Public Employment
• Relief Programs for Individuals & Hard-Hit Communities
• Recovery for Local Small Businesses & Nonprofits and Support for New Business Development

A strategy focused on opportunity, equity, education and training is critical to reshaping New York City’s economy to create healthier communities, more skilled workers, deeper talent pools, and a more resilient business climate. The recent weeks of peaceful protests over the current and historically unequal treatment of Black and Brown people by institutions and systems of power have made it abundantly clear that New Yorkers want a society and economy that proactively works to build up the many, not the few.

“COVID-19 is more than only a health crisis, it is an economic tsunami with job losses -economists state 41% are predicted to not return,” said Katy Gaul-Stigge, President & CEO of Goodwill NYNJ. “The NY Workforce Recovery Strategy Group’s Recovery for All equitable economic recovery plan addresses strategies so that New Yorkers can recover: the workforce can return to a new normal, young people can enter for the first time, and a plan for all New Yorkers that will create rebuilding, real relief with cash, and recovery for our small businesses.”

Read more details about Recovery for All: A Vision for New York City’s Equitable Economic Recovery in this Press Release.