Initiative Will Build on Recent Tech Hubs Successes – and Help Local Communities Integrate and Advance Economic Growth with Economic Mobility to Create Good Jobs and Ensure Fair Access to Good Jobs Nationwide
Initiative and Initial Philanthropic Investment of $20 Million Unveiled Through U.S. Department of Commerce’s Innovative Capital Summit and Jobs for the Future’s Horizons Conference.
Building on its recent efforts that helped to establish Regional Tech Hubs across the nation, America Achieves today announced a “Good Jobs Economy” initiative to help local communities integrate and advance strategies for marrying economic growth and economic mobility.
Through this initiative, the national nonprofit organization America Achieves will support local partners to advance growth of key industries and good jobs in local economies – and create clear pathways for local residents to attain living-wage jobs in high-growth sectors.
America Achieves is working with partners to build “proof points” of Good Jobs Economies in selected communities across the country; equip any community to do this work with useful tools, frameworks, and an evidence base on what works; and advance public policy and communications to advance this work.
To help do so, America Achieves and philanthropies will provide local partners with funding, a community of peers, and high-quality, tailored technical assistance. Areas of support include workforce and talent development, governance and capacity development for local intermediary organizations and coalitions, and sustainable funding strategies.
America Achieves secured more than $20 million in philanthropic funding to support the planning and launch of this initiative – and America Achieves is expecting to aggregate and announce additional funding in the coming months.
Philanthropic funding for planning this initiative has been provided by Blue Meridian Partners, the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF), Strada Education Foundation, and others. Of those funders, GKFF also supported America Achieves’ efforts to help Tech Hub applicants develop their plans – as did the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and others. Funders supporting implementation of the Good Jobs Economy initiative going forward include the philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, among others.
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced this initiative on July 29, following its Innovative Capital Summit. America Achieves CEO Jon Schnur also announced it while speaking at Jobs for the Future’s Horizons 2024 Summit (in its session on “Revving the Engines of Economic Mobility”).
In recent years, America Achieves has helped design, shape, and secure federal funding for $2 billion in programs and policies supporting place-based economic and workforce development — including the Good Jobs Challenge, Build Back Better Regional Challenge, and Regional Tech Hubs. Of the 12 communities receiving funding through the Tech Tubs program from a pool of over 300 applicants, America Achieves provided six of them with in-depth technical assistance developing their plans and applications.
“Communities across our country are putting local residents and businesses to work building new solutions to key challenges – and integrating strategies for economic growth and economic mobility,” said Jon Schnur, CEO of America Achieves. “With catalytic funding from initiatives like Tech Hubs, local partnerships are making substantial commitments to drive local economic competitiveness, create good jobs, and help more Americans pursue clear pathways to living wage jobs in high-growth local sectors of the economy.”
America Achieves will partner with a cohort of regional leaders to:
Strengthen the governance of diverse regional coalitions and the capacity of their lead organizations;
Support workforce and talent strategies, including the development of effective local workforce intermediaries; and
Identify sustainable funding to advance regional efforts.
America Achieves will also develop frameworks and tools based on lessons learned in these regions that can be shared with communities across the country interested in this work. In addition, the organization will continue to advocate for bipartisan efforts to advance public policy and communications in service of a Good Jobs Economy for everyone.
The initial communities receiving support from America Achieves, and additional funding and funders, will be announced in the coming months.
