When it comes to preparing community residents to be community leaders, ensuring that they have the skillsets needed for meaningful and gainful work is a must in today’s competitive environment.

And sometimes life circumstances present residents with challenges that require a little extra help to overcome employment barriers. Episode 7 of the Upswell Podcast is about workforce development, and two organizations – one in Detroit and the other in Los Angeles — that are providing that extra lift up with great success.

Our first podcast guest, Erica Page, is youth services manager for the Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation. As the city of Detroit’s workforce agency, they help Detroiters search for and find jobs, and provide job training, career advice, and other supportive services. They assist employers, too, helping them source or build the skills they need for their businesses, and find qualified job seekers.

Brittany Murrey, our second podcast guest, is business development manager for Homeboy Electronics Recycling in Los Angeles. They’re among the organizations that comprise Homeboy Industries, which provides hope, training, and support to formerly gang-involved and/or previously incarcerated men and women.

Homeboy Electronics Recycling, a woman-led social enterprise, provides recycling and data destruction services, offering “second chances to people, and electronics, that have been discarded by society.”

Uplifting people and communities. Addressing challenges. Forging partnerships. Changing things for the better. Sounds like the focus of Homeboy Electronics Recycling and the Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation are a perfect fit for Upswell’s mission, too.