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Aspen Institute
Publications
Pooling Resources Is an Investment in People and Business: Shared Solutions Drive Retention and Growth
November 6, 2025
UpSkill America, and Economic Opportunities Program
The Source, a nonprofit in Grand Rapids, Michigan, demonstrates how small- and midsize businesses can achieve strong outcomes for both their workforce and their bottom line by working together.
Eight family-owned manufacturers founded The Source in 2003, after realizing that their employees needed more support than they could provide on their own. “By recognizing they had similar problems in being able to help their people to support their lives outside of work,” The Source’s Executive Director, Alison Freas said, “they came together.” Workers were struggling with housing, childcare, transportation, and access to training — challenges too large for individual HR teams, often consisting of one to three people, to tackle alone. By pooling resources, these companies built a shared support system that has grown into a nationally recognized model for workforce development.
Today, The Source helps small businesses improve retention, reduce turnover costs, and strengthen competitiveness, while improving employee stability and career advancement. This has an impact not only on the 27 employers involved but also on the broader community it serves.
This case study demonstrates how The Source’s collaborative approach yields measurable business outcomes and provides a roadmap for replication in other communities.
UpSkill America, an initiative of the Economic Opportunities Program, supports employers and workforce organizations to expand and improve high-quality educational and career advancement opportunities for America’s front-line workers.
About the Economic Opportunities Program
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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“We are delighted to welcome this new class of Fellows,” said UpSkill America Senior Director Haley Glover. “Supporting these leaders, who are joining a thriving community of alumni, to advance in their work and careers creating real value for their organizations and opportunities for their workforces is so rewarding. This is an incredibly impressive group.”
Leaders must view AI adoption as a development opportunity to redefine how capability is built, focusing on outcomes and consciously reinvesting capacity freed by automation to ensure growth and resilience for both the business and its people.
