WHO WE ARE

Economic Growth = Opportunity for Everyone

why we need good jobs

Nashville is booming, but the current workforce development pipeline is broken. Rather than prosperity for all, gentrification and displacement have become all-too-common counterparts to economic success in cities nationwide as new development fails to generate high-quality jobs and career paths for local residents. But we have a different vision.

At Good Jobs Nashville, we see economic growth as a chance to create avenues to middle-class jobs for a generation of Nashvillians, and to address the city’s growing racial and economic inequality. When growth comes to Music City, we believe that it should benefit working people just as much as wealthy developers and CEOs. That’s why we started Good Jobs Nashville, a one-stop shop for connecting growing businesses and local residents searching for their next opportunity.

Our History

Good Jobs Nashville grew out of a grassroots movement aimed at empowering the working class and the marginalized to stand up and speak out against racial inequity, economic inequality and injustice.

Our communities have come together to demand economic development that doesn’t leave working families behind. And time and time again, we’ve won. We’ve won a Community Benefits Agreement on one of South Nashville’s largest redevelopment plans in decades. We’ve won higher safety standards for workers on publicly funded projects. We’ve won increased accountability for corporations receiving public tax dollars. We have the people power to make sure that a rising tide lifts all boats in Nashville.
As our movement continues to build, we are determined to make sure that the opportunities our movement wins reach the people that need them most. That’s why we created Good Jobs Nashville, a workforce development and career advancement initiative where job seekers can find all the info they need about life-changing career and job training opportunities from employers committed to investing in the city they call home.
Good Jobs Nashville is focused on capitalizing on a once-in-a-generation opportunity to align our workforce with the development of our city. By organizing for and winning opportunities for everyone in Nashville, we can build up our communities, create high-quality jobs, and ultimately change the course of Nashville’s future. By creating a single source for all of the opportunities that come along with our city’s economic growth, we aim to play an active role in ensuring that the benefits of our city’s success reach all of Nashville’s hardest-working communities.

Good Jobs Nashville is a workforce development initiative of Stand Up Nashville, a coalition of community and union organizers, churches, neighborhood leaders, and hard-working families with a common goal: for Nashville to be better for everyone. We address racial and economic inequality through strategic research, popular education, and organizing. By uniting and strengthening our communities, we fight poverty with strategic action around public investment and city planning to create thriving neighborhoods and shared prosperity.
Specifically, Good Jobs Nashville was founded to promote the opportunities that grassroots movements are winning for Nashville’s working families, and to serve as a liaison between employers, candidates, and communities seeking to ensure that Nashville’s economic success leads to a stronger city for all. By fostering connections and relationships between business partners, communities, and working Nashvillians, we strive to support all of our stakeholders in achieving mutually reinforcing goals of prosperity and success across multiple bottom lines.

Our mission

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Stronger Communities = A Stronger Nashville

We believe that you can measure a city’s success by looking closely at whether or not economic growth is reaching its hardest-working families. That’s why our vision is grounded in community engagement focused on bringing the benefits of development to all of Nashville’s communities. You can support this work by giving what you can to Good Jobs Nashville’s parent organization, Stand Up Nashville. Every contribution goes towards funding our efforts to place the people of Nashville at the center of big decisions. Help us ensure that development benefits Nashville’s working communities, not just the rich and powerful.

Meet our team

Nathaniel Carter

Director of Workforce Development – Stand Up Nashville

Nathaniel Carter has served as Director of Workforce Development for Stand Up Nashville since 2021. Previously, Nathaniel worked as a Journeylevel Wireman for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 429 in Nashville, TN. Nathaniel is a Nashville native and proud White’s Creek Comprehensive High School alumni. Since graduating from IBEW 429’s apprenticeship program, Nathaniel has been a passionate advocate and community liaison for the skilled trades, bringing over 200 people into apprenticeship programs and the Union building trades since 2017. He has traveled the country as a Journeylevel Wireman, working in California and Kentucky as well as his home state of Tennessee. As Director of Workforce Development, Nathaniel has expanded his vision to include creating new opportunities through grassroots organizing and political coalition building and bringing these opportunities to Nashville’s working-class communities. He currently resides in Spring Hill, TN with his wife and two children.

Sam Malick-Petschulat

Program Director of Music City Construction Careers, Good Jobs Nashville – Central Labor Council

A native of Nashville, Sam Malick-Petschulat holds a B.A. in English and Economics and Masters of Social Work from the University of Tennessee and currently serves as Program Director of Music City Construction Careers and Good Jobs Nashville for the Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle TN. His background includes a combination of community organizing, electoral organizing, and program management at organizations including SEIU Local 205, the Missouri Dept. of Human Services, Bernie Sanders 2020, and Workers Dignity. He combines these experiences with a vision of achieving radical economic equity through labor organizing to strengthen the Middle Tennessee labor movement and working families’ communities in Nashville. Off the clock, he can usually be found gardening with his wife Kaitlin, entertaining his cats, or reading a good book.