The Bay Area’s workforce faces both historic inequities and new challenges—from climate risks to rising job precarity. How can philanthropy move beyond distant grantmaking to actually empower workers and build lasting power in local communities?

In this episode, we sit down with Rob Hope, Director at ReWork the Bay, and Brianna Rogers, Initiative Officer at ReWork, to explore how proximate grantmaking is transforming workforce development in the Bay Area. Together, we unpack how this approach brings funding and decision-making closer to the communities it serves, empowering workers to become advocates for job quality and workplace equity.

Tune in to hear how ReWork the Bay is building worker power, advancing equitable solutions, and redefining what it means to invest in local communities.

2026 is shaping up to be a defining year for the field of workforce development. We’re launching new programs. We have the SHIFT Conference coming up in Albuquerque this September. And across the country, conversations about job quality, worker voice, and racial equity are accelerating.

In this special episode of State of Our Workforce, we’re joined by Amanda Cage for a candid conversation about this pivotal moment, and what it requires of all of us. Amanda will discuss the organization’s evolution form a collaborative philanthropic fund into a national catalyst reshaping workforce systems so workers, employers, and communities can thrive together. In this episode, Amanda reflects on that evolution and shares why this moment calls for something bigger.

Whether you’re an employer, funder, policymaker, workforce leader, or longtime partner, this episode asks a timely question: How do we shift work forward — together? Listen now and join us in shaping what comes next.

Learn more about Shift Work Forward: https://shiftworkforward.org/

In this special bonus episode, State of Our Workforce producer Josh Enoch sits down with Michelle Wilson and Henry Danner, hosts of State of Our Workforce and Unpacked, to look back at a year of powerful conversations. Together, they revisit standout moments, unpack recurring themes, and explore what those stories reveal about the state of workforce equity.

The conversation also digs into why storytelling is more than a communications tool—it’s a strategy for advancing racial equity, challenging entrenched narratives, and reshaping systems so workers, employers, and communities can thrive together.

As we look ahead to the year to come, the group reflects on the questions we need to keep asking, the voices we need to keep centering, and what it will take to build a future where every job is a good job.