Posted on August 27, 2010

Knight Foundation Awards $1.1 Million to National Fund for Workforce Solutions

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has announced a $1.1 million grant to the National Fund for Workforce Solutions to help prepare jobseekers and workers nationwide for careers.

NFWS, which recently received a two-year, $7.7 million grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service's Social Innovation Fund to partner with Jobs for the Future and expand its targeted training and technical assistance to low-income individuals nationwide, will use the grant from Knight to test career-building approaches at twenty-three sites. Each site works to create a regional funder collaborative, organize workforce partnerships, develop sector-specific approaches, build career pathways, and align regional workforce investments.

Knight is one of nine national investors that are collaborating with NFWS to leverage more than $104 million from local public and private funders. The investors — which include the California Endowment, Microsoft, and the Annie E. Casey, Harry and Jeanette Weinberg, Ford, Hitachi, Prudential, and Walmart foundations — are contributing a total of $23.7 million to support NFWS's work.

"Few things are more important to a person than having a job. This investment is critical to strengthening our job training programs in America and an important legacy program for Knight," said Damian Thorman, national program director at the foundation and incoming chair of NFWS. "We need to take chances and learn how change can be made, and then help communities adopt tested approaches that local institutions can keep going."