President Clinton Announces Impact of Commitments Made at the Second Annual Clinton Global Initiative America Meeting

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Jun 08, 2012, 04:30 ET

Business, nonprofit, and government leaders have launched more than 50 new commitments that will create or fill more than 530,000 jobs in the United States

Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu to join President Clinton at closing plenary session on Friday at 4:00 p.m. CT

CHICAGO, June 8, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today President Bill Clinton announced the impact of the 2012 Clinton Global Initiative America (CGI America), a meeting dedicated to forging collaborative solutions to the United States' most pressing economic challenges. This year, CGI America attendees, who include leaders from government, business, and nonprofit sectors, made more than 50 new commitments valued at more than $1 billion that will create 32,000 jobs and fill more than 500,000 vacant jobs in the United States.

"This year's CGI America participants have formed creative partnerships and come up with inventive strategies to accelerate employment, start new businesses, and prepare Americans to take the jobs that are open in the new U.S. economy," said President Clinton. "From nearly $176 million of new capital that will go to small or medium enterprises, to the nearly 150,000 students who will gain access to STEM education opportunities, this year's meeting has demonstrated the important advances we can make when working together towards a shared prosperity."

Throughout the meeting, attendees generated Commitments to Action: new, specific plans to address an economic challenge facing the United States, such as job creation, small business development, clean energy, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education, housing recovery, and workforce development. Some of the commitments announced today will provide underserved young people with skills in digital media and construction, give women and minorities opportunities for entrepreneurship, and transform foreclosed properties into affordable housing.

When fully funded and implemented, the 58 new CGI America commitments aim to positively impact the lives of nearly 3.9 million Americans in the following ways:

More than 32,000 jobs will be created, including 6,600 green jobs.
More than 500,000 jobs will be filled by veterans and their family members.
Nearly 68,000 people will receive improved access to capital or financial services.
More than 117,000 people will benefit from access to job training and certification.
Nearly 760 million kilowatt hours of energy will be saved.
More than $84 million of new capital will be invested in green initiatives.
More than 12,000 people will gain increased access to health services.
More than $640 million of the total value of the new commitments will address housing recovery, including returning distressed single-family housing to productive use, retrofitting homes in 25 new cities, and developing affordable housing units for low-income individuals.

President Clinton concluded the two-day meeting by encouraging leaders to find ways to create an innovative and sustainable tomorrow. In the final session, "What's Next? Towards a More Perfect Union," Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; Regina E. Dugan, senior vice president of Advanced Technology and Projects at Motorola Mobility; Duncan Niederauer, director and CEO of NYSE Euronext, Inc.; Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed; Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and director of Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History; and Mark Vachon, vice president of Ecomagination at General Electric, spoke about the importance of STEM education, supporting American innovation, and the future of the American economy.

The second day of the CGI America meeting opened with the "Sustainable Finance" plenary session, where Donna Gambrell, director of the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund; Lisa Hall, president and CEO of Calvert Foundation; Ted Howard, executive director of the Democracy Collaborative; and Jim Koch, chair and founder of the Boston Beer Company, Inc., discussed sustainable access to capital to both grow existing businesses and finance new ventures.

Equal opportunity in employment and entrepreneurship was the topic of the second plenary session, "Pathways to Opportunity," which featured Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter; Peter G. Peterson, chairman and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation; Chelsea Clinton, board member of the Clinton Global Initiative and William J. Clinton Foundation; John Hope Bryant, founder, chairman, and CEO of Operation HOPE, Inc.; Kyle McCollom, founder of Triple Thread Apparel; Ai-jen Poo, director of National Domestic Workers Alliance; Jerry Sue Thornton, president of Cuyahoga Community College; and Joan Walker, executive vice president of corporate relations at Allstate Insurance Company.

CGI America is sponsored by J.B. & M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation, Allstate Insurance Company, The Dow Chemical Company, ExxonMobil, The Joyce Foundation, The Peter G. Peterson Foundation, and APCO Worldwide.

For descriptions of all the commitments to be announced today, please see below. A complete list of all CGI commitments is available here: www.clintonglobalintiaitive.org.

To view and share session webcasts from the CGI America 2012, visit live.cgiamerica.org. Follow us on Twitter at @ClintonGlobal, hashtag #CGIAmerica, and on Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative for meeting news and highlights.

The following new commitments and progress reports will be announced today:

Impact America HBCU Venture Catalyst
Commitment by: United Negro College Fund and Jalia Ventures
Summary: Jalia Ventures and the United Negro College Fund committed to launching a venture competition to promote the development of minority-owned businesses that have a social or environmental mission. This partnership will raise $3.5 million over two years to expose historically black college and university students and alumni to social entrepreneurship and impact investing, and provide select entrepreneurs with seed financing and technical assistance to launch or scale up their enterprises. Those applicants who are selected to receive funding will have access to ongoing mentoring, training, and professional development opportunities.

Criterion Institute: Churches Investing in Microbusinesses
Commitment by: Criterion Ventures
Summary: In 2012, Criterion Institute commits to mobilizing 1,000 churches by 2018 to use micro-lending to invest in micro-businesses. With each microloan averaging $5,000 and each church supporting 20 micro-businesses, Criterion Institute will produce $100 million of new investment capital for American micro-businesses in a five year period. This commitment will reach 20,000 small business owners, create jobs, and secure more livelihoods.

Expanding Small Business Microlending in Los Angeles
Commitment by: Opportunity Fund; Coolhaus
Summary: In 2011, Opportunity Fund, California's largest non-profit microlender, committed to increase its lending to small business owners by 60 percent and significantly scale its operations in the Los Angeles area after traditionally focusing most of its loans on Bay Area small businesses. As Opportunity Fund rapidly scales its small business microlending, California entrepreneurs in key urban markets will pay less to borrow the money they need to grow, while keeping or adding 2.4 jobs on average with each loan made.

Break Through: The New Digital Workforce
Commitment By: Youth Radio
Summary: In 2012, Youth Radio commits to create a Digital Media and Technology Pathway, connecting at least 60 low-income young adults to jobs in the technology and digital media industry. Youth Radio will partner with businesses in the Oakland, California, and East Bay area to provide disconnected youth with externships and opportunities to build technology skills. Through this commitment, Youth Radio will also create a Break Through news desk which will provide youth with the ability to deliver reports on solutions related to youth unemployment, which will be pushed to national broadcast and digital outlets.

Earn Your Future: Boosting Financial Literacy & Youth Education
Commitment By: PricewaterhouseCoopers U.S. (PwC)
Summary: In 2012, PwC U.S. made a five-year commitment to address youth education, with a focus on financial literacy, impacting 2.5 million youth and educators in the U.S. Through an investment of $160 million – composed of $60 million in cash donations and one million service hours, worth $100 million – PwC will prepare educators and youth with financial literacy training to help young people make responsible decisions and contribute to a healthier U.S. economy. To fulfill this commitment, PwC US is working alongside a variety of local and national nonprofit partners, including Donorschoose.org, Feeding America, and Junior Achievement.

Real-Time Job Training Platform to Solve the Skills Gap
Commitment By: LearnUp
Summary: In 2012, LearnUp, a real-time job skills training platform, committed to working with at least eight major employers, including Staples, Prudential, Gap, and Safeway, to enable them to share job training content online for free with job-seekers, including over 100,000 students at community colleges throughout California.

Engaging Corporations in Entrepreneurial Education
Commitment By: BUILD
Summary: In 2012, BUILD, which teaches entrepreneurship and life skills to low-income high school students on the verge of dropping out, has committed to engaging approximately 20-30 companies to support BUILD through providing skills-based volunteering to its students in entrepreneurial education, assisting with business plans, mentorship, and job shadowing. It aims to reach more than 2,000 new students.

Eliminating Bank Deserts in the Mid-South
Commitment By: Hope Community Credit Union
Summary: Hope Community Credit Union commits to adding 11 new branch locations and increasing its membership from 26,000 to 51,000 individuals, which will provide residents in underserved and distressed Mid-South communities with access to its retail services, small business loans, and mortgages.

Online Mental Health Program for Veterans in the Workforce
Commitment By: Prevail Health Solutions
Summary: Prevail Health Solutions committed to developing an Online Mental Health that deals directly with many of the common challenges the current generation of veterans are facing as they reintegrate into the civilian workforce. Prevail committed to working with one or more large, veteran-friendly employers to provide this program at no cost to 2,000 veteran employees over a nine-month period beginning in fall 2012.

A Growth Strategy for Small Business Global Expansion
Commitment By: Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP)
Summary: Women Impacting Public Policy committed to developing and implementing a global export expansion education program targeted at helping 5,000 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with an emphasis on women-owned SMEs. The program will guide current exporters in expanding to other countries, leading them through further exporting's developmental steps.

Creating Jobs, Saving Energy in Illinois
Commitment By: Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity
Summary: In 2012, The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (IL DCEO) State Energy Office, in partnership with the IL DCEO Office of Employment and Training and the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, committed to delivering Building Operator Certification (BOC) training that targets incumbent workers, returning veterans, and employed building operators in Illinois. The BOC program offers facilities workers the improved job skills and knowledge to create energy efficient and environmentally friendly workplaces, leading to energy savings and cost reductions and ten full-time vacant jobs filled in the green jobs space.

Bridging the 21st Century School Readiness Gap
Commitment By: The Parent-Child Home Program
Summary: In 2012, The Parent-Child Home Program, Inc. (PCHP) committed to pilot a new curricular component that will bring technology access and literacy into the homes of young families challenged by poverty, limited educational opportunities, and language and literacy barriers. When brought to scale and rolled-out to its 110 partner agencies, this curriculum will reach 7,000 families, impacting at least 14,000 people (one child and at least one parent per household).

California Best Buildings Challenge
Commitment By: U.S. Green Building Council; Prudential Real Estate Investors; Genentech, Inc.; Google
Summary: The U.S. Green Business Council and leaders from Silicon Valley – including Google, Adobe, Prudential Real Estate Investors, Genentech, Zynga; and SAP – commit to developing the California Best Buildings Challenge, which will recruit California businesses in a competition to achieve an ambitious 20% reduction in energy, water, and waste in their buildings in just 2 years.

Maker Corps: Building the Next Generation of Innovators
Commitment By: Maker Education Initiative; Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation; Intel Corporation
Summary: The Maker Education Initiative and its partners committed to creating the Maker Corps, which will train and employ 1,400 college-age young people to serve as mentors who engage children in hands-on "Maker" projects that make science and technology fun. Over the life of the commitment, the Maker Corps program will be established in a minimum of 50 locations and give a total of 140,000 children the opportunity to develop the problem-solving and technical skills needed to be part of the modern workforce.

Generating Real Opportunities for Work Transforming Housing
Commitment By: National Community Reinvestment Coalition
Summary: National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) and its principal partners Chicanos Por La Causa and the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department committed to returning at least 4,100 units of distressed single-family housing to productive use while creating 5,000 jobs for local residents in the next four years. In addition to stabilizing neighborhoods by rehabbing distressed properties in seven states, this project will implement a nationally acclaimed pre-apprenticeship curriculum to train and place local residents in construction related jobs and union apprenticeships, with a target of training and placing at least 1,000 women.

Returning Home: Building Jobs through Affordable Housing
Commitment By: Urban Atlantic
Summary: Urban Atlantic committed to partner with the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) to rehabilitate, retrofit, and reoccupy 200 vacant and publicly owned single-family homes, creating 250 quality jobs for local residents. The project seeks to demonstrate replicable strategies that will deliver quality rental homes at affordable prices.

Transforming Foreclosed Properties into Affordable Housing
Commitment By: Enterprise Community Partners; Waypoint Real Estate Group
Summary: Enterprise Community Partners and Waypoint Homes will launch a 2-year pilot program in Oakland, California, converting 100 foreclosed properties into affordable rental housing in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. This groundbreaking partnership combines the capital and expertise of a national nonprofit and a private equity real estate group, serving as a model for affordable rental housing creation with little or no public subsidy.

About CGI America
President Clinton established the Clinton Global Initiative America (CGI America) to address economic recovery in the United States. CGI America brings together leaders in business, government, and civil society to generate and implement commitments to create jobs, stimulate economic growth, foster innovation, and support workforce development in the United States. Since its first meeting in June 2011, CGI America participants have made more than 160 commitments valued at $12.8 billion when fully funded and implemented. To learn more, visit cgiamerica.org.

About the Clinton Global Initiative
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world's most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 150 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date CGI members have made more than 2,100 commitments, which are already improving the lives of nearly 400 million people in more than 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued at $69.2 billion.

CGI's Annual Meeting is held each September in New York City. CGI also convenes CGI America, a meeting focused on collaborative solutions to economic recovery in the United States, and CGI University (CGI U), which brings together undergraduate and graduate students to address pressing challenges in their community or around the world. For more information, visit clintonglobalinitiative.org and follow us on Twitter @ClintonGlobal and Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative.

SOURCE Clinton Global Initiative