Wisconsin Job Watch

June 2010 data shows a dip in jobs, unemployment down.

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Collaboration

COWS collaborates with other groups and institutions to conduct research and policy projects, address key public policy issues, and educate the general public about our work. Some of the projects listed below are currently underway. Others are now completed. To learn more about these efforts, click on the links below.

Advanced Manufacturing Project (project now completed)

A former research consortium that investigated how suppliers of large equipment producers could stay competitive and preserve quality manufacturing jobs in the upper Midwest.

Apollo Alliance

A national campaign of labor, environmental, and civil rights organizations to create jobs through energy efficiency in communities across the country.

Center for State Innovation

Center for State Innovation is one of the leading organizations helping governors and state executives promote innovative, progressive policies that better the lives of the people they serve.

Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN)

A network of scores of local, state, and national organizations that conduct research, policy, and educational work related to economic and labor market issues.

Efficiency Cities Network

The Efficiency Cities Network (ECN) is an informal policy learning network of government staff, researchers and technical assistance providers, and NGOs currently active in or committed to making scaled efforts at high-road (i.e., concerned with equity and democracy, not just sustainability) energy retrofits (seeking increased energy efficiency, conservation, and clean generation) of urban building stock.

Emerald Cities Collaborative

The Emerald Cities Collaborative is a small group of business, labor, and community leaders fulfilling the promise of “high-road efficiency cities” (aka “equity efficiency cities” or “emerald cities”) — that is, cities that organize themselves to become more energy efficient and less CO2e-emitting, with equitable local capture of the benefits of doing so.

Governor's Consortium on Biobased Industry (project now completed)

From May 2005-July 2006, COWS served as a consultant to the Governor's Consortium on Biobased Industry. The Consortium was formed in May 2005 to recommend state goals and policies for the development of a Wisconsin bioeconomy, based on turning feedstocks such as crops, animal waste, and forest products into energy, fuel, and other marketable products.

Green For All

Green For All is a national organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.

High Road Heath Care Charrette

Jobs With a Future

A collaborative partnership of employers and public-sector institutions that seeks to align and improve the workforce development system in South Central Wisconsin.

Labor in the New Energy Economy

The Labor in the New Energy Economy Project (LNEE) helps labor leaders build strategies to promote workers’ interests as our society moves away from the polluting technologies of the past.

Mayors Innovation Project

The Mayors Innovation Project (MIP) is a learning network for mayors and their staff dedicated to developing ‘high road’ policies for American cities. MIP brings together research resources, policy innovations, and metropolitan leadership to create cities of shared prosperity, environmental responsibility, sound management, and democratic accountability.

Milwaukee Jobs Initiative (project now completed)

The Milwaukee Jobs Initiative (MJI) was an eight-year project funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and supported by local and state matching funds. MJI brought together business (through the Greater Milwaukee Committee), labor (through the Milwaukee County Labor Council, the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, and union locals), and the community (through local human services providers and community-based organizations) to connect qualified central-city residents to family-sustaining jobs.

Regional Industry Skills Education (RISE)

By promoting career pathways, Regional Industry Skills Education (RISE) works to create new routes from low-wage work to high-paying careers.

Wisconsin Energy Efficiency (We2)

COWS and the Cities of Milwaukee, Madison, and Racine have pioneered Wisconsin Energy Efficiency (We2), a program that targets residential, commercial, and industrial buildings in the three cities for energy efficiency upgrades.

Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership

A Milwaukee-based consortium that brings together business, labor, the public sector, and community organizations to improve economic opportunities through plant modernization, job training, and employee recruitment, retention, and mentoring programs.

Working Poor Families Project

The Working Poor Families Project (WPFP) is a national initiative launched in 2002 to strengthen state policies that can better prepare America’s working families for a more secure economic future. WPFP is active in 23 states and the District of Columbia. COWS leads the project in Wisconsin.