Community Organizations In San Diego Receive Funding Through The Citi Foundation And LISC To Help Train Workers For Growing Job Sectors

Two local nonprofits will use $360,000 in grants to help displaced workers prepare for skilled positions in healthcare, technology, hospitality, retail, and solar

News provided by

Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)

Mar 19, 2019, 13:00 ET

SAN DIEGO, March 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Citi Foundation and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) today announced new funding through the Bridges to Career Opportunities initiative (Bridges) to help connect unemployed and underemployed people in San Diego to quality jobs in growth industries.

Two local nonprofits have been awarded $360,000 over three years and technical support to provide services that help job seekers increase their incomes, improve their credit and raise their standards of living. Services include skills training and career development, as well as personal finance coaching, continuing education courses (to strengthen math and reading skills), and resources to help job seekers secure transportation, child care and housing arrangements, which can be impediments to career mobility.

The new funding is part of a $10 million three-year national effort by the Citi Foundation and LISC to expand the reach of Bridges and spur economic opportunity for thousands of families, including nearly 500 workers in San Diego.

"Ensuring all San Diegans have access to good quality jobs in growth industries makes our city stronger," says San Diego Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer. "Citi Foundation's investment in the San Diego Housing Commission and the International Rescue Committee to expand LISC's Bridges to Career Opportunities program in San Diego is another great example of the private sector, local government, and the nonprofit sector coming together to support our local workforce."

The grantees both have long and successful track records of outreach in the communities they serve. They will use the Bridges funding to tailor their services to growing employment sectors and to reach a wider range of local residents.

International Rescue Committee (IRC) (El Cajon and City Heights) works with refugees, immigrants, and other low-income community members to help them build careers that provide greater self-sufficiency, job security, and opportunities for advancement. With this new funding, the IRC will build on existing programs in healthcare and hospitality/tourism/retail as well as develop a new training program focused on solar panel installation—a high-growth and in-demand local industry.
San Diego Housing Commission (Citywide) will work with low- and moderate-income residents to offer career pathways in hospitality/customer service, healthcare, and information communication technology, while also offering a range of other financial counseling and supportive services.

"The demands of today's U.S. job market are playing out in different ways for American workers and we need to support those who are being negatively impacted by the forces that are shaping the modern economy," said Ed Skyler, executive vice president for global public affairs at Citi and chair of the Citi Foundation. "By connecting programs that provide not only education and skills building, but support services for family and housing needs, we're helping American workers who have been or are in danger of being displaced achieve success and contribute to their communities."

The San Diego groups are among 40 community-based nonprofits to be awarded funding through this program (a full listing of participating organizations can be found here.) Notably, more than half of the sites, including IRC, are located in Opportunity Zones, a federal incentive to increase investments in low-wealth communities as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Donna Duvin, executive director of IRC San Diego, says "We are grateful to the Citi Foundation for their investment in IRC San Diego as it will help us provide communities greater access to quality jobs in high growth sectors in our county. Working in partnership with the Citi Foundation and LISC San Diego, the IRC will be able to support even more refugees, immigrants, and other low-income individuals on a path towards self-sufficiency through an integrated service-delivery model that focuses on living-wage career placement and career advancement services."

The majority of people who enter the Bridges program are either unemployed or working in minimum wage jobs and testing at a 6th-8th grade education level. After Bridges, more than three-quarters of participants move on to occupational skills training, and 64 percent achieve industry-recognized credentials—opening doors to living wage jobs they would not otherwise be able to access and putting them on career pathways with the opportunity for ongoing advancement. In the last two years alone, more than 3,000 training participants across the country have been placed in jobs.

"This funding from the Citi Foundation and LISC provides essential support for San Diego Housing Commission programs that promote financial self-reliance among the low-income families we serve, including our SDHC Achievement Academy and the San Diego EnVision Center partnership," says SDHC president & chief executive officer Richard C. Gentry. "I thank the Citi Foundation, LISC and LISC San Diego for their commitment to the Bridges to Career Opportunities initiative and their collaboration with the Housing Commission."

The Citi Foundation's investment in Bridges builds on a decades-long relationship between the Foundation and LISC. It also signals an expansion of Citi Foundation's Pathways to Progress initiative beyond youth-focused career readiness to provide adult job seekers the full range of services needed for long-term employment.

About the Citi Foundation
The Citi Foundation works to promote economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the world. We invest in efforts that increase financial inclusion, catalyze job opportunities for youth, and reimagine approaches to building economically vibrant cities. The Citi Foundation's "More than Philanthropy" approach leverages the enormous expertise of Citi and its people to fulfill our mission and drive thought leadership and innovation. For more information, visit www.citifoundation.com.

About LISC
With residents and partners, LISC forges resilient and inclusive communities of opportunity across America – great places to live, work, visit, do business and raise families. Since 1979, LISC has invested $18.6 billion to build or rehab 376,000 affordable homes and apartments and develop 63 million square feet of retail, community and educational space. To learn more, visit www.lisc.org.

Contact
LISC
Media
John Freeman, 619-274-2779
[email protected]

Or
Amanda Fox, 347-581-6498
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Citi
Media
Elizabeth Kelly, 212-559-2477
[email protected]

SOURCE Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)