Grants will support workforce organizations to connect job seekers to quality employment in the green energy and infrastructure sectors, including by strengthening the referral network, adapting training programs, and improving transportation options
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 19, 2023
(Chicago …) We Rise Together: For an Equitable & Just Recovery announced $525,000 in funding for three organizations helping connect job seekers with employment in the clean energy and infrastructure sectors.
We Rise Together is a funders collaborative working with community members to respond to the urgent economic needs of Black and Latinx communities through three key strategies: investing in disinvested neighborhoods, strengthening Black and Latinx businesses, and supporting access to quality, sustainable employment.
“Increasing the number of people employed in quality jobs that pay good wages is a key strategy for supporting stronger local economies in Chicago’s disinvested communities,” said We Rise Together Program Director Christen Wiggins. “This latest round of grants will support organizations to leverage federal funding to connect job seekers in the communities in which we’ve invested with good job opportunities in the emerging clean energy sector.”
Grants in this round were awarded to the following organizations:
• Elevate, $250,000: To partner with regional workforce organizations to help them access and make effective use of federal funding to train and connect job seekers to quality jobs in the clean energy sector.
• ScaleLit, $250,000: To help ensure that high-quality jobs created in the Chicago region through federal investment in the green economy are connected to job seekers in disinvested communities.
• On the Road Lending, $25,000: To develop a strategy, business plan, and relationships to enter the Chicago market with affordable auto loans that will help working families overcome transportation barriers to find and retain employment in the clean energy and infrastructure sectors.
Since September 2021, We Rise Together has strategically invested more than $38 million, including support for more than 30 neighborhood anchor real estate investments worth more than $366 million. Of these projects, 12 have opened providing immediate impact: new activities for young people, new jobs, much-needed healthcare, childcare, recreation, healthy food, and more.
About We Rise Together
We Rise Together: For an Equitable & Just Recovery is a funders collaborative working with community members to respond to the urgent economic needs of Black and Latinx communities. Our model for community investment at scale supports coordinated, community-led commercial and economic development. Through strategic grants to community-directed real estate development projects that leverage additional investment, we are building thriving neighborhoods and a stronger Chicago. Learn more at wrtogether.org.
