Florida News Connection
Originally PublishedMarch 1, 2022
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Some national funding is headed toward Southwest
Florida to help boost rural learning and workforce systems.
CivicLab, a
national nonprofit promoting civic collaboration, announced today five rural
partnerships will get to divvy up a $750,000 grant to help facilitate training,
provide technical assistance and direct financial support to benefit low-income
learners, including adults entering or reentering workforce training programs.
Tessa LeSage, director of the FutureMakers Coalition,
which plans to use the grant funds to improve education outcomes in Hendry
County.
"We're very excited," LeSage remarked. "We're at the very
beginning stages of this. Nothing like this has really been done in Hendry
before, so we're happy to have such amazing partners including Florida Gulf
Coast University, The Joseph Project, the Hendry County EDC (Economic
Development Council)."
LeSage's coalition includes more than 300 different stakeholders, including
people from the business and education community coming together to help solve
the complete challenges in workforce and education in rural counties. Other
states receiving grants include Texas, Indiana, New Mexico and California.
Dakota Pawlicki, director of Talent Hubs for CivicLab, said the application
process for the grant was very competitive. However, they felt the FutureMakers
Coalition demonstrated they had the relationships, capacity and capability to
make real change.
"They have a great opportunity to work with their local school
system," Pawlicki explained. "Their superintendent is on board and
there to make sure that people have the kind of education skills they need,
particularly as new business start coming into southwest Florida."
With funding support from Ascendium Education Group, partnerships will now work
together to accomplish a system- and program-level plan to improve education
and workforce outcomes for their residents, including helping with job
placements, credential completion and social mobility. Each partnership will
receive support during a two-year cycle of the initiative.
Content for this Post is provided by Florida News
Connection, a Bureau of Public News Service.
Public News Service is a member of the The Trust Project.
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