As the city begins to move beyond life dominated by Covid-19 and deal with the effects of a still-lingering recession, non-profit human service providers face continued challenges.

City government relies on such non-profits to provide essential services in the areas of housing and homelessness, mental health care, elder care, youth employment (like the Summer Youth Employment program job pictured above), and job training and placement in communities across New York.

In the coming months, pandemic-scarred New Yorkers will increasingly turn to these services for help with mounting housing insecurity, the need for job retraining and placement, and mental health supports to address the grief and trauma exacerbated by this past year.

Before the pandemic, in Fiscal Year 2020, the City contracted $5.1 billion for these services; in the coming months, demand for these supports will likely increase. And while an influx of Federal resources from the American Rescue Plan Act and increased social services funding from the State will help significantly, the human services sector must also now tackle a longstanding problem: Ensuring the retention and advancement of an overworked and underpaid workforce.

On June 9th, the City took an important step toward addressing this problem by launching the Human Services Career Advancement Scholarship. The $2 million funding in this program will cover up to 50 percent of tuition costs for qualified employees of human service nonprofits working toward associate’s, bachelor’s, or master’s degrees at participating City University of New York (CUNY) schools. Eligible employees may also receive financial support to attain the licensure portion of a Master of Social Work degree. This initiative was developed in consultation with CUNY’s Office of Continuing Education and Workforce Development, the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development, the Center for New York City Affairs, FPWA (formerly known as the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies), and other experts from the human services sector.

The scholarships will be available to employees who have previously earned some college credits and who work in nonprofits under contract with the City Administration for Children’s Services and the Departments of Health and Mental Hygiene, Youth and Community Development, Aging, Small Business Services, and Social Services (also known as the Human Resources Administration).

A report published in November by the Center for New York City Affairs highlights two key reasons for moving this initiative forward.

First, investment in the human services workforce should improve the overall quality of service delivery for New Yorkers. While employment in this sector has grown faster in recent years than in the private sector overall and encompasses a highly educated workforce (63 percent of workers having earned at least a four-year college degree), these jobs often pay much less than comparable positions in the private sector or in City agencies.

As a result, human services non-profits often suffer from high rates of staff turnover, as workers burn out from their high-stress positions and insufficient pay. Turnover places the additional burden of operating a consistent recruitment cycle on organizations and adds to the caseloads of remaining staffers. Tuition assistance will aid in the completion of degrees for service workers, helping with advancement to higher pay and employment levels within the field. Stabilizing the workforce will benefit those receiving services and the city overall.

Second, workforce investments will improve the livelihoods and advancement prospects of workers within the sector – a workforce overwhelmingly composed of persons of color (68 percent) and women (63 percent).

Developing a career ladder for advancement will also help address stark existing pay disparities between employees of color and white employees in the sector. Such pay disparities between women of color and white women in the human services sector, for example, disappear at the master’s degree level, underscoring the benefit of helping women of color earn such degrees.

The Human Services Career Advancement Scholarship will be overseen by a steering committee of leaders from within nonprofit social services. In the coming months, they, and the City, should also consider opening other avenues of support, such as funding to cover educational expenses beyond tuition, like books and materials, test prep courses, transportation to and from classes, and childcare costs.

New York City is on an important path toward recovery from the pandemic. As Covid-19 recedes as a daily threat for many New Yorkers, social challenges laid bare by the pandemic – in housing, mental health, employment, and other areas – will have long-lasting effects. Building a resilient human services sector is an essential part of the City’s recovery – one in which the Human Services Career Advancement Scholarship can play an important role.

Sierra Lewandowski is a co-author of the report Building a Social Service Ladder to Career Advancement. She is a research assistant at the Center for New York City Affairs and recently earned her master’s degree in public and urban policy from the Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment at The New School.

Photo by Next City.