Aspen is a place for leaders to lift their sights above the possessions which possess them. To confront their own nature as human beings, to regain control over their own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and hence more self-fulfilling.
Improving job quality doesn’t just benefit workers; it can also strengthen small businesses themselves and the broader communities they serve. Yet, many small business owners lack the resources and knowledge needed to improve the quality of their jobs. Trusted partners, like community development financial institutions (CDFIs), can make a meaningful difference.
Through its Shared Success demonstration, the Aspen Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program has had the opportunity to learn about the range of strategies CDFI business advisors have employed to encourage job quality among their small business clients. EOP’s job quality advising guide, “Building Shared Success: A Guide to Small Business Job Quality Advising for CDFIs,” was developed in collaboration with business advisors based on this experience. Centered on business value, this guide provides tools, resources, and success stories that can help organizations working with small businesses coach clients on potential job quality improvements that can also enhance business resilience.
This webinar, which EOP hosted on June 26, 2025, features highlights from the guide, as well as insights from CDFI leaders about their approaches to building job quality advising into their work. It features opening remarks from the Aspen Institute’s Maureen Conway and Bryn Morgan, followed by a panel discussion with Amanda Blondeau (Northern Initiatives), Cynthia Murphy (Coastal Enterprises, Inc.), and Delphine Ntegeye (African Development Center).
The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy.
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States invest in work-connected learning through dozens of distinct funding streams, grant programs, and agency initiatives, often developed independently over time by different administrations and agencies pursuing different goals.
“Social contract” has quickly become one of the most-used, least-defined phrases in the AI policy conversation. This first event in a two-part series will trace the origin and history of the American social contract, examining how work became the anchor of economic security, mobility, and civic identity in the United States.
For decades, economists and policymakers have debated how to help workers get better jobs. But what if the more fundamental problem is that employers have systematically redesigned work itself to make a third of the workforce expendable? In his forthcoming book, “Disposable Workers: The Transformation of Employment,” MIT Sloan Professor Emeritus Paul Osterman examines this idea and what it would take to reverse it.
To create a future-ready workforce system, we must move beyond outdated credentials and analog processes to one that is skills-first, transparent, data-driven, and aligned with the evolving needs of workers, educators, and employers.
