Economic & Workforce Development

Overview

The Foundation’s work in the area of economic and workforce development is evolving.

Current projects include the following:

• The Greater New Orleans Foundation is working to bring federal stimulus funding to the New Orleans region to support our revitalization efforts. To that extent, we are working with Seedco, a national, nonprofit community economic development organization, to bring together a partnership that will apply for funding from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Pathways Out of Poverty green jobs program.  The program provides comprehensive workforce services to low-income individuals, including job readiness training, adult basic education, support services, construction and weatherization techniques training, job shadowing and internships, and full-time placement and job retention services.  The local partnership will include representatives of weatherization programs, utility companies, building and trades contractors, community organizations, literacy and training providers, and business services providers.
• The Greater New Orleans Foundation, the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and JP Morgan Chase convened local stakeholders in February 2009 to discuss opportunities to grow the minority middle class by building the capacity of small and disadvantaged businesses to take advantage of contracting opportunities made available through the expenditure of federal recovery dollars in the Orleans region.