TOLEDO - The Citi Foundation and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) today announced new funding through the Bridges to Career Opportunities initiative (Bridges) to help connect unemployed and underemployed people in Toledo to quality jobs in growing industries.
Two local nonprofits have been awarded $380,000 and technical support to provide services that help job seekers increase their incomes, improve their credit, and raise their standards of living. Services include skills training and career development, as well as personal finance coaching, continuing education courses (to strengthen math and reading skills), and resources to help job seekers secure transportation, child care, and housing, which can be impediments to career mobility.
The new funding is part of a $10 million three-year national effort by the Citi Foundation and LISC to expand the reach of Bridges and spur economic opportunity for thousands of families, including more than 600 workers in Toledo.
“On behalf of the Lucas County Commissioners and the Workforce Development Board, I congratulate LISC on being selected by the Citi Foundation for funding through the Bridges to Career Opportunities initiative,” said Tina Skeldon Wozniak, president of the Board of Lucas County Commissioners. “LISC has a long-standing history of working to improve economic opportunity for low-income residents of our community. This funding will continue Lucas County’s ongoing efforts to connect the unemployed and underemployed people in Toledo with the skills and training needed to compete for jobs in the growing sectors of manufacturing and information technology.”
The grantees both have long and successful track records of outreach in the communities they serve. They will use the Bridges funding to tailor their services to growing employment sectors and to reach a wider range of local residents.
“The demands of today’s U.S. job market are playing out in different ways for American workers and we need to support those who are being negatively impacted by the forces that are shaping the modern economy,” said Ed Skyler, executive vice president for global public affairs at Citi and chair of the Citi Foundation. “By connecting programs that provide not only education and skills building, but support services for family and housing needs, we’re helping American workers who have been or are in danger of being displaced achieve success and contribute to their communities.”
The Toledo groups are among 40 community-based nonprofits to be awarded funding through this program (a full listing of participating organizations can be found here.) Notably, more than half of the sites, including the ProMedica program, are located in Opportunity Zones, a federal incentive to increase investments in low-wealth communities as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
“Successful regions ensure that all workers can participate in the economy, creating opportunities for them to raise their families and help their neighbors,” according to Kim Cutcher, executive director of Toledo LISC. “This support from the Citi Foundation is perfectly aligned with local strategies to address the gap between talent supply and demand, drawing on research being conducted by the Toledo Area Regional Chamber of Commerce that will help us support growth,” Cutcher added.
The majority of people who enter the Bridges program are either unemployed or working in minimum wage jobs and testing at a 6th-8th grade education level. After Bridges, more than three-quarters of participants move on to occupational skills training and 64 percent achieve industry-recognized credentials—opening doors to living wage jobs they would not otherwise be able to access and putting them on career pathways with the opportunity for ongoing advancement. In the last two years alone, more than 3,000 training participants across the country have been placed in jobs.
The Citi Foundation’s investment in Bridges builds on a decades-long relationship between the Foundation and LISC. It also signals an expansion of Citi Foundation’s Pathways to Progress initiative beyond youth-focused career readiness to provide adult job seekers the full range of services needed for long-term employment.
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About the Citi Foundation
The Citi Foundation works to promote economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the world. We invest in efforts that increase financial inclusion, catalyze job opportunities for youth, and reimagine approaches to building economically vibrant cities. The Citi Foundation's "More than Philanthropy" approach leverages the enormous expertise of Citi and its people to fulfill our mission and drive thought leadership and innovation. For more information, visit www.citifoundation.com.
About LISC
With residents and partners, LISC forges resilient and inclusive communities of opportunity across America – great places to live, work, visit, do business and raise families. Since 1979, LISC has invested $18.6 billion to build or rehab 376,000 affordable homes and apartments and develop 63 million square feet of retail, community and educational space. To learn more, visit www.lisc.org.
Contact
LISC
Media
Valerie Moffitt, 419-242-3836
vmoffitt@lisc.org
Citi
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Elizabeth Kelly, 212-559-2477
elizabeth.kelly@citi.com