Emerging Issues

The challenges communities will grapple with in the future don’t typically overlap with the challenges they face right now. The world needs someone who’s looking around the corner to recognize, examine, and evaluate tomorrow’s solutions—today.
Programs
Through our incubator pilots, we source, vet, and nurture cutting-edge solutions for the problems of tomorrow.
Working in concert with other Foundation programs and business partners, we develop theories of change and test new approaches to challenges across a spectrum of disciplines, including geopolitical risk, democracy and capitalism, and business-led solutions to wicked problems.
Latest Content
How can the business community be a part of the solution and bring positive change to communities?
Revolutionary capabilities that 5G will generate promise to change the course of human development. Pairing ultra-high capacity and speed with ultra-low latency means that entire industries could be reshaped as we adapt to a world in which digital commands and responses occur almost simultaneously.
The future of work is now and the problem we are solving is not adapting to new technologies, but adapting to the dynamism of the economy, which will only accelerate. Dynamic economies require dynamic labor markets, and agile businesses require agile workers and workforce partnerships.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were approximately 8.6 million STEM jobs in May 2015, with the highest jobs in software development, user support, and systems analysts. Despite the high number of jobs, the lack of skilled workers in the labor force allow these positions to go unfilled. To make matters worse, the existing STEM workforce lacks diversity among women and minorities, not representing the emerging workforce of women and underrepresented groups.
This issue of America Working Forward takes an in-depth look at some of the businesses, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits who are building pathways to employment for formerly incarcerated individuals.