The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has announced the recipients of the Strengthening Working Families Initiative grant on June 14th, as part of the first United State of Women Summit.
The Summit was the beginning of a conversation about the changes needed to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to have a job and a family. According to DOL, six out of ten households with children have all parents working. With more parents working, greater access to affordable, high-quality child care is needed but is difficult to find due to steadily increasing child care costs and relatively stagnant funding to cover the costs of child care. While training and education can help move parents into better paying jobs, some of the barriers to employment also serve as barriers to training and education. The lack of access to affordable child care keeps parents from participating in educational programs.
Of the 21 million low-income parents, only 1 in 10 participates in education and training. Of low-income parents participating in education and training, almost half are working at the same time, resulting in the burden of paying child care costs while at work, in training, and commuting.
These monies will support providing access to education and training to help parents move along a career pathway that will lead to better paying jobs. Below are the 2016 grant recipients.
Grantee Name and Amount State Areas Served
Action for Boston Community Development Inc. MA City of Boston $3,462,075
Alachua Bradford Regional Workforce Board, dba CareerSource FL Alachua and Bradford counties $4,000,000
City of Long Beach Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Net CA County of Los Angeles $4,000,000
City of Phoenix AZ Maricopa County $4,000,000
Community College of Aurora CO Aurora and Denver; Adams, Arapahoe Denver counties $3,969,442
Family Footprint SC Greenville and Laurens Counties $4,000,000
Memphis Bioworks Foundation TN Fayette, Lauderdale, Shelby and Tipton counties $3,984,433
Moore Community House MS Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties $3,545,949
OAI Inc. IL Cook County $3,999,981
OIC of Broward, dba OIC of South Florida FL Broward County $4,000,000
Rochester Rehabilitation Center NY City of Rochester $4,000,000
The WorkPlace CT Fairfield County and parts of New Haven County $3,432,200
Total Action Against Poverty in the Roanoke Valley, Inc. VA Counties of Roanoke, Floyd, Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski; $4,000,000
cities of Radford, Salem and Roanoke
Vermont Technical College VT State of Vermont $4,000,000
TOTAL = $54,394,080.00
To learn more about the Strengthening Working Families Initiative, visit www.doleta.gov/grants.