Workforce Development

Ford Foundation Helps Launch National Fund to Strengthen America's Workforce

$50 million for the nation's most promising job training and recruitment programs

2 November 2007—The Ford Foundation has joined an innovative partnership of foundations, businesses and government to boost America’s economic competitiveness by supporting initiatives that provide training for low-income workers and connect them to employers looking for skilled employees.

The National Fund for Workforce Solutions, a $50 million, 5-year effort to strengthen and expand effective workforce initiatives around the country, was recently announced in Washington, D.C. The Ford Foundation has committed $20 million to the fund, extending a long history of support for programs that expand economic opportunity in the United States and around the world.

Spurring Innovation

The new fund will work with local initiatives to place at least 50,000 Americans in career-oriented jobs and leverage more than $200 million in local funding. It will also provide services to at least 1,000 employers to help them recruit, train and move employees into family-supporting jobs. The fund is also committed to expanding the resources and improving the efficiency of workforce development systems in more than 30 regions across the country.

The fund has announced $4.5 million in funding for three-year grants for job training and recruitment projects in 10 cities. Six of these $450,000 grants will go to expanding existing projects. Four are being awarded to new cities.

Uniting with Business and Government

Each of the cities receives investments from the private, philanthropic and public sectors and demonstrates innovative approaches that meet the needs of both workers and employers. In doing so, these new workforce initiatives are creating opportunities for workers to move into jobs and careers that provide family-supporting wages and benefits.

Seed funding of $20 million from the Ford, Annie E. Casey, Harry and Jeannette Weinberg and Hitachi foundations, as well as the U.S. Department of Labor, and other key supporters helped launch the national fund. These leaders are now seeking additional commitments from foundations, businesses and the public sector to help reach the $50 million goal.

Building on Commitment to Reduce Poverty

The Ford Foundation’s support for the National Fund for Workforce Solutions furthers its decades-long track record of support for cutting-edge initiatives to reduce poverty. The foundation has forged new partnerships with private banks, community organizations, public agencies and research institutions to develop, test and expand new initiatives that help low-income individuals build wealth and move into the economic mainstream.

For more information about the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, visit www.nfwsolutions.org.

Read press coverage of the new fund in the Providence Journal, Boston Globe and the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Read Ford Reports to learn more about foundation grantees working to help low-income people gain economic security.

Photo
Keith Dannemiller

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The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than half a century it has been a resource for innovative people and institutions worldwide, guided by its goals of strengthening democratic values, reducing poverty and injustice, promoting international cooperation and advancing human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Russia.