Preparing Residents for Lifelong Employment

The Community Foundation is committed to ensuring equity, access and opportunity for all residents of our region. We pursue this long-term goal by investing in quality education, workforce development and safety net programs. In the workforce area, our goal is to:

•  Improve workers’ career prospects and earnings by increasing the number of adults in our region who acquire a post-secondary credential.

Why? Because we know that our region’s economy increasingly demands high levels of skills and knowledge from its workers. With low-skilled positions on the decline, thousands in our region are not only unemployed but lack the necessary tools to find and keep a job that can lead to economic stability. We also know that employers value credentials, so we are working to link adult education and training to the on-the-ground needs of employers. The outcome? Workers armed with credentials that employers value and families on the path to a stable, higher quality of life.

Strategies

There are three ways that The Community Foundation is pursuing its workforce development goal:

1. Increase access to community college for areas residents through investments in bridge programs. These programs build pathways from school systems, nonprofits and employers to community college programs that offer training and credentials that lead to employment.
2. Increase collaboration across the region in the workforce development arena, largely through our Greater Washington Workforce Development Collaborative. You can read about the Collaborative and its work here.
3. Increase investments in effective workforce development programs throughout the region.

One of our newest initiatives in the workforce area is our Washington@Work grants program.

Washington@Work

This new effort, funded through a partnership with the Walmart Foundation, is providing multi-year grants to local nonprofits in Washington, DC providing employment skills training and career counseling. In early October, The Community Foundation announced $1.25 million in grants through this effort to the following organizations: Carlos Rosario International School, Covenant House, Goodwill of Greater Washington, Latin American Youth Center and So Others Might Eat. Funding will support programs in all eight District of Columbia wards and are designed to improve residents’ skills such as English as a second language, computer literacy, math and customer service training. All participants will have access to job recruitment, career counseling and job placement services for customer service opportunities.

The funding is part of Walmart’s recently announced DC Urban Workforce Development Initiative, aimed at providing literacy, customer service and retail training to 2,000 District residents. Partners in the program include Walmart, The Community Foundation and the University of the District of Columbia Community College.

A list of Frequently Asked Questions about the grants program may be downloaded here.

For more information about the Washington@Work Initiative or our workforce development program, please contact Luis Vivaldi, Program Associate at lvivaldi@cfncr.org or 202-263-4768.