Skills for America’s Future and the Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation has launched “Connect to Work AZ,” a program that will address underemployment and unemployment by focusing on communities of color and communities that traditionally have suffered from lack of investment. The program will complement existing Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation efforts to help local employers fill jobs with people from the communities those businesses serve.
With support from the Charles Koch Foundation, Skills for America’s Future (Skills) is expanding its successful approach to addressing unemployment into communities, like Phoenix, where jobless rates remain high. The organization engages employers to understand their hiring needs, company culture, and long-term goals. It then connects those employers to underemployed and unemployed talent from traditionally overlooked communities who have been recruited and coached by Skills.
This approach already has improved economic mobility for thousands of Americans. Skills has placed more than 19,000 formerly unemployed and underemployed job seekers in Chicago and Rhode Island by leveraging its robust network of local and national hiring partners.
Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation President and CEO Todd Sanders said, “Connect to Work AZ will positively impact our community by eliminating barriers and placing Arizonans in quality, high-demand jobs with opportunities for advancement. This initiative is the first of its kind in Arizona and we’re very excited to be involved.”
Read the announcement and read more about CKF’s support for Skills for America’s Future.