Initiative Will Build on Recent Tech Hubs
Successes – and Help Local Communities Integrate and Advance
Economic Growth with Economic Mobility to Create Good Jobs and
Ensure Fair Access to Good Jobs Nationwide
Initiative and Initial Philanthropic
Investment of $20 Million Unveiled
Through
U.S. Department of Commerce's Innovative Capital
Summit and
Jobs for the Future's Horizons
Conference
NEW
YORK, July 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Building on
its recent efforts that helped to establish Regional Tech
Hubs across the nation, America
Achieves today announced a "Good Jobs Economy" initiative to
help local communities integrate and advance strategies for
marrying economic growth and economic mobility.
Through this initiative, the national nonprofit organization
America Achieves will support
local partners to advance growth of key industries and good jobs in
local economies – and create clear pathways for local residents to
attain living-wage jobs in high-growth sectors.
America Achieves is working with
partners to build "proof points" of Good Jobs Economies in selected
communities across the country; equip any community to do this work
with useful tools, frameworks, and an evidence base on what works;
and advance public policy and communications to advance this
work.
To help do so, America Achieves
and philanthropies will provide local partners with funding, a
community of peers, and high-quality, tailored technical
assistance. Areas of support include workforce and talent
development, governance and capacity development for local
intermediary organizations and coalitions, and sustainable funding
strategies.
America Achieves secured more
than $20 million in philanthropic
funding to support the planning and launch of this initiative – and
America Achieves is expecting to
aggregate and announce additional funding in the coming months.
Philanthropic funding for planning this initiative has been
provided by Blue Meridian Partners, the George Kaiser Family
Foundation (GKFF), Strada Education Foundation, and others. Of
those funders, GKFF also supported America
Achieves' efforts to help Tech Hub applicants develop their
plans – as did the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and
others. Funders supporting implementation of the Good Jobs Economy
initiative going forward include the philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, among others.
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced this
initiative on July 29, following
its Innovative Capital Summit. America Achieves CEO Jon Schnur also announced it while speaking at
Jobs for the Future's Horizons 2024 Summit (in its session on
"Revving the Engines of Economic Mobility").
In recent years, America Achieves
has helped design, shape, and secure federal funding for
$2 billion in programs and policies
supporting place-based economic and workforce development —
including the Good Jobs Challenge, Build Back Better Regional
Challenge, and Regional Tech Hubs. Of the 12 communities receiving
funding through the Tech Tubs program from a pool of over 300
applicants, America Achieves
provided six of them with in-depth technical assistance
developing their plans and applications.
"Communities across our country are putting local residents and
businesses to work building new solutions to key challenges – and
integrating strategies for economic growth and economic mobility,"
said Jon Schnur, CEO of America Achieves. "With catalytic funding from
initiatives like Tech Hubs, local partnerships are making
substantial commitments to drive local economic competitiveness,
create good jobs, and help more Americans pursue clear pathways to
living wage jobs in high-growth local sectors of the economy."
America Achieves will partner
with a cohort of regional leaders to:
- Strengthen the governance of diverse regional coalitions and
the capacity of their lead organizations;
- Support workforce and talent strategies, including the
development of effective local workforce intermediaries; and
- Identify sustainable funding to advance regional
efforts.
America Achieves will also
develop frameworks and tools based on lessons learned in these
regions that can be shared with communities across the country
interested in this work. In addition, the organization will
continue to advocate for bipartisan efforts to advance public
policy and communications in service of a Good Jobs Economy for
everyone.
The initial communities receiving support from America Achieves, and additional funding and
funders, will be announced in the coming months. To learn more
about or participate in this initiative, please sign up for updates
here.
About America Achieves
For more than a decade, America
Achieves has incubated high-performing initiatives,
launched new nonprofit organizations, and partnered with local
leaders focused on making their communities better places to live,
learn, work, and raise a family.
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SOURCE America Achieves