“We represent over 19,000 cities, towns, and villages across the United States. We work together with those communities to provide technical assistance on various kinds of programs. Those priorities range from equity in broadband to health care to workforce development to education.” explains Robert Blaine, senior executive and director for the Institute for Youth, Education, and Families (YEF Institute) with the National League of Cities (NLC).
WorkingNation sat down with Blaine at the Milken Institute Global Conference 2021 in Beverly Hills as part of our #WorkingNationOverheard interview series. With Charting a New Course as the guiding theme, thought leaders and innovators shared ideas about the changing economy, worker development, education, tech, philanthropy, and more.
The NLC uses data to determine disparity in communities. Says Blaine, “It’s a whole gamut of issues. Every community is different. What we’re really focusing on now is how do we use this data-informed approach with cities to really think about where the inequities are, and then help them set a set of priorities.”
“We’ve known where disparities are in communities for a long time, but it’s a way of using that confirmational data to really think about how funding is structured and to be able to use that in a way to open the spigot for federal funding, to be able to be leveraged in those communities,” he adds.
Reaching the stakeholders in any given community helps inform change, according to Blaine. “We find working with mayors, for example, is that they have incredible convening power to bring together various cross sections of the community around an initiative. What we do is we come in on the back end and help with the technical assistance, really thinking about how we bring together these various communities and effectuate a program that’s actually going to drive outcomes.”
Blaine offers an example of working with hurricane-prone communities in the South. He asks, “How can we have workforce training that goes along with infrastructure projects so that the people that live in the community are actually working to solve the problems? And then that they’re using that to be able to gain a viable income, a living wage in their communities.”
Prior to working at the National League of Cities, Blaine was the city manager in Jackson, Mississippi. He describes the city’s economic model of dignity. “You can look at Jackson and cities like Jackson and find what we called ‘economic models of humiliation.’ When you look at blight, crime, poor educational outcomes, and lack of opportunity, essentially, you’re looking at economic models of humiliations.”
“We wanted to turn that around and create economic models of human dignity. What are the components that actually create a dignified living for all residents of a city, no matter what your zip code is? How do we create a stable unit that actually provides the foundation for the success for the next generation? And when we think about having a stable job, what it means to have a living wage and to be able to provide for a family in a way where parents don’t have to work three, four, or five jobs in order to be able to make a living.”
Blaine says, “In so many communities, your zip code determines your outcomes and your opportunities. And we want to divorce those two.”
Click here to learn more about the Institute for Youth, Education, and Families (YEF Institute) with the National League of Cities.
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Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.
Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.
Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.
Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.
Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.
Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.
