Posted on November 29, 2012

Venture Philanthropy Partners Awards $2.8 Million to Urban Alliance

Venture Philanthropy Partners has announced a $2.8 million grant over four years to help expand the work of D.C.-based Urban Alliance, which places high school students in internships with local employers and federal government agencies.

With support from VPP, Urban Alliance will expand its efforts into northern Virginia, where it will serve an additional two hundred students through its high school internship program and seventy alumni as part of its Alumni Services Initiative, which assists program participants as they move on to college and full-time careers. Eventually, the organization plans to expand into suburban Maryland and provide workforce skills training to more than a thousand youth in the region.

According to a recent VPP report, Capital Kids: Shared Responsibility, Shared Future (36 pages, PDF), childhood poverty in the District of Columbia exceeds the childhood poverty rate in Mexico and is rising sharply for children in some of the region's most affluent suburbs, including Montgomery County and the city of Alexandria.

"At Urban Alliance, our mission is to help young people from some of the poorest neighborhoods in this region prepare for a world of work and life of self-sufficiency, by providing them access to meaningful paid internships, training, and mentoring," said Urban Alliance board chair Mary Zients. "We are delighted to be partnering with VPP, which has long been a leader in helping to support local nonprofits in the fight for better futures for all children."