WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region announced today that it has received a major grant of $450,000 from the National Fund for Workforce Solutions (NFWS). The grant will support The Foundation's Greater Washington Workforce Development Collaborative, which seeks to assist employers having trouble finding qualified workers and to prepare low-wage workers to move into jobs that pay a family-supporting wage.
The Greater Washington Workforce Development Collaborative is one of four regional partnerships across the United States selected for this inaugural round of grants. Funds will be invested in not-for-profit workforce development programs throughout the Greater Washington region. The ultimate goal is to craft a regional model that can be duplicated or adapted by communities across the country.
"We are deeply grateful to the National Fund for Workforce Solutions for this important grant," said Terri Lee Freeman, President of The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region. "Employers in the Washington metropolitan region are struggling to find well-trained workers to take some jobs, while many low-wage workers lack the skills or training they need to become financially secure. With the support of the NFWS, our Collaborative can begin to find new solutions to this longstanding problem."
Under the terms of the grant, four times the grant amount -- or $1.8 million -- must be raised from local sources over the next three years. To date, $275,000 has been pledged or received, and additional funding is being sought actively.
The National Fund for Workforce Solutions was established by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Hitachi Foundation, the U.S. Department of Labor and others. The Fund's initial $15 million in matching grants is intended to be a springboard for investing $50 million to strengthen and expand effective workforce initiatives nationwide. Over the next five years, the Fund's goal is to leverage more than $200 million in local funding and provide services to at least 1,000 employers to help them recruit, train and move employees into family-supporting jobs.
Founded in 1973, The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region is one of the largest community foundations in the United States in terms of assets, grants paid, and contributions from donors. In FY07, The Foundation and its donors awarded some $95 million in grants to nonprofit organizations in the Washington, DC region and beyond.
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