Fund for Workforce Equity – Jul 31

Posted by Workforce Matters on June 28, 2022

Workforce Matters invites applications for Fund for Workforce Equity

Launched by Workforce Matters in 2021, the Fund for Workforce Equity is a pooled fund created to spark innovative strategies for meeting the needs of workers and students of color, document lessons and elevate promising practices for funders, practitioners, advocates, and researchers.

The fund will provide awardees with funding, technical assistance, and the ability to participate in a learning community to workforce development organizations seeking to pilot, adopt, and learn from new strategies as well as advance or extend existing strategies that: respect, value, honor, and compensate workers, students, and job candidates at all career and education levels for the skills and perspectives that they bring to designing and implementing workforce programs and policies; and create spaces for people of color to develop workforce programs, policies, and evidence building.

In addition, the Fund for Workforce Equity will help organizations implement and develop: a learning community for grantees; technical assistance that provides grantees access to expertise and resources on human-centered design and other best practices for including the voices of workers and students; and evaluation and learning efforts that share lessons from the initiative with grantees and the broader workforce field while supporting funders in determining best practices among their grantees.

The Fund for Workforce Equity anticipates that up to $1 million will be awarded to support organizations in implementing initiatives that center workers and learners of color in workforce policy and program design and implementation. Applicants may request grants of up to $70,000, and it is anticipated that typical awards will range from $50,000 to $70,000.

Applicants must provide workforce development programming or advocacy, including but not limited to: education and training programs that help individuals acquire and retain good jobs; efforts that help workers to increase their income and/or advance their careers; internships, apprenticeships, and/or learn-and-earn experiences; career coaching/counseling; providing or coordinating work supports such as transportation or childcare services; and organizing or advocacy efforts related to any of the above.

Applicants must already be invested in organizational racial equity training and must be U.S.-based; organizations that provide direct services to individuals: must serve a majority of workers and/or learners of color. Additionally, applicants must be classified as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization or be fiscally sponsored by an organization that is classified as a 501(c)(3) organization or is a federally recognized or state-recognized tribal government.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the Workforce Matters website.

Deadline: July 31, 2022