Good Jobs and Strong Communities:

Tools for Building the High Road

he high road to a better future is well under construction. The May 13-16 Working for America Institute national conference in New York City takes stock of recent union based innovations in that direction under the theme, Good Jobs and Strong Communities: Tools for Building the High Road. For union and community leaders, for educators, program operators, workforce board members and activists who care about the economic health of their communities, the national conference is the place to be.

Each year, the Institute and the union movement add to their fund of knowledge and experience about building the high road for working families. Through conference presentations, workshops and informal networking, participants will be able to share in every facet of high road building: from interfaith councils for worker justice, the use of strategic research to build a foundation and focus for an organization, from fiscal accountability under the new system, to temporary workers in high-wage, high-skill industries.

This Journal provides an overview of where we've come from and where this work is going. The articles present areas of evolving union movement work in building good jobs and strong communities—expanding union roles in the workforce investment system, developing sectoral and regional high road partnerships, and how to build those high road initiatives.

Each article is matched with a list of national conference workshops that review and expand on the material. You can check our website - www.workingforamerica.org - for developments and summaries of the conference. After all, we can't predict what new synergies will come out of this lively gathering. We encourage you to email workshop leaders with your questions and your experiences. All of this is part of the widening circle of networking among high road practitioners and advocates that is basic to the Working for America Institute.