The Fund created the Job Opportunities Program in 1994 to develop and test new ways to expand employment and career-development strategies so economically disadvantaged adults and youth can earn a living wage. Grants go exclusively to organizations in the northeastern United States, from New York to Maine. They focus on workforce-development initiatives that connect individuals to good jobs and help them build a stable career; income-producing opportunities that benefit low-income women and rural communities; and strategies to alleviate rural poverty. The Fund also hopes to help the workforce-development sector create model programs and influence public policy.

Except in unusual circumstances, The Fund does not provide ongoing operational support. In making grants under the Job Opportunities Program, The Fund looks for:

  • Workforce-development initiatives that create job-training and job-placement programs or sectoral strategies; build the workforce-development sector's capacity to help low-income individuals; and enhance policy and advocacy capability of practitioners.
  • Microenterprise-development efforts that benefit low-income women and/or rural communities.
  • Innovative strategies that help low-income rural residents find work.

 


Grants


Microenterprise Technical Assistance

ACCION USA

$35,000

To help ACCION USA applicants improve their credit scores and financial knowledge, thus increasing the number of microentrepreneurs who achieve long-term business success and stability.

Women's Rural Entrepreneurial Network

$50,000

To expand business training and technical assistance for microentrepreneurs in northern New Hampshire.

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Workforce Development Capacity Building

New York City Employment and Training Coalition

$35,000

To train 200 member organizations in advocacy skills.

The Workforce Alliance

$55,000

To strengthen coalitions in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont with technical assistance and capacity building grants.

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Workforce Development Innovations / Enhancements

Binding Together, Inc.

$50,000

To help graduates of Binding Together's print technology training program advance in their careers.

Common Good Ventures

$45,000

To increase the number of foster care youth who are working or in school, with programs that could be applied to other at-risk youth in Maine.

Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation

$40,000

To provide training and professional development opportunities for direct service staff at community-based nonprofit and public agencies in the education, employment, and training sectors.

East Harlem Employment Service (Strive Central)

$45,000

To offer environmental remediation technology training to 60 low-income New York City residents and place them in sustainable-wage jobs.

Fedcap Rehabilitation Services

$40,000

To assist underserved youth in gaining life and job skills to attain long-term living wage careers.

International Rescue Committee

$50,000

To broaden employment options and increase earning potential for dozens of refugees.

MY TURN, Inc.

$50,000

To work with Rhode Island job training, employment placement and social service providers to enable young people in Pawtucket and other Rhode Island cities to enter marine trades.

New Hampshire Community Loan Fund

$40,000

To build a quality workforce for home care by creating jobs that retain experienced and skilled staff and by understanding what homebound elderly value in direct care workers.

Operation ABLE of Greater Boston

$40,000

To assist unemployed professionals at mid-life in developing the necessary skills and job search strategies to find satisfying work.

Pioneer Valley Rebuilders CDC

$40,000

To provide employment services and skills training to community residents with a history of incarceration; and to place those residents in building trades work as a way to prevent recidivism.

ReCycle North

$50,000

To develop new services for the community while creating a social enterprise for sustaining the youth training program.

Safe Space NYC

$40,000

To provide a comprehensive career development program that will address youth unemployment.

STRIVE Boston Employment Service

$55,000

To place ex-offender training graduates, both from the Roxbury program and the Suffolk House of Corrections, in jobs; and to perfect the training and job placement service for ex-offenders so that it becomes a national model.

Vermont Works for Women

$50,000

To develop and market technical assistance services to public and nonprofit agencies interested in Step Up to Law Enforcement and modular home construction by incarcerated women.

Volunteers of America Northern New England

$50,000

To provide women with trade skills so that when they are released from prison they can earn a livable wage; and to build affordable homes for low-income families.

YMCA of Greater Boston

$40,000

To successfully prepare Boston Training, Inc. students for careers in medical administration.

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See 2006 Grants

See 2005 Grants

See 2004 Grants

See 2003 Grants

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Overview

Developmental Disabilities

Environment

Reproductive
Health

Human Rights

Job Opportunities

Civic Engagement / Defense of the Public Interest