What You Can Do to Close the Opportunity Gap and Why It’s Bigger Than You Think

“Talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not.” — Darren Walker, Ford Foundation¹

As we sit watching people with radically different versions of “who we are” as a country, I try to bring myself back to Darren’s bedrock principle. In this land of great opportunity, talent is abundant but access to opportunity is not. Of course obvious places to invest are better public education and work opportunities for people of all races, genders, and sexual orientations. In my last post, I also mentioned creating second chances for people who are disconnected from the modern economy — be it for incarceration, limited education, or immigration status. But there exists a less visible opportunity gap for often highly educated, talented, and hardworking people who simply took time off of work to care for a loved one: an aging parent dying of cancer, parental leave, or assisting a family member in a difficult transition. The barriers to re-entering the workforce for these brave caregivers can be daunting when it shouldn’t be.

Removing barriers and creating a pathway to opportunity is why Path Forward took on its mission: to empower people to return to the paid workforce after years away caring for a loved one. Path Forward provides organizational support to companies to offer mid-career internships as an on-ramp to paid employment. The program was incubated at Return Path where Tami Forman (now Executive Director of Path Forward) and CEO Matt Blumberg created “Returnships.” It was so successful, they spun it out last year with strong support from Joanne & Fred Wilson, Amy Batchelor & Brad Feld, and Costanoa.

Think about how many people you know in your life directly who felt they needed to choose either family or career because our workforce didn’t support coming back after a long time away. How many of them have had to return underemployed and re-earning their qualifications? Programs like Path Forward and shifts in attitudes can go a long way to closing this opportunity gap for these highly capable people. To date, participating companies include PayPal, SendGrid, ReadyTalk and Moz. In aggregate, 85% of Path Forward participants were offered employment at the company where they participated in the program, and 90% were employed within 8 weeks of completing the program — demonstrating the quality of the candidate pool and how productive it is for both sides. Costanoa is thrilled to be a part of this start up and helping it launch this fall in Silicon Valley.

Here’s where we need your help. Please tell your company (HR or recruiting team) about the program and see if they are interested in enrolling. More corporate participants in the Bay Area will increase density and services for participants and help give this under-employed but capable workforce the opportunities they deserve. It’s our loss if we don’t.

¹ “Internships Are Not a Privilege” by Darren Walker- New York Times, July 5, 2016

You can read the first of the three part series on giving in its different forms here: “The Importance of Second Chances and Why They Matter to Everyone” and the third here: “Giving and Getting Engaged: Just Do It.”