News Release

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OPA News Release: [07/02/2003]
Contact Name: Lorette Post
Phone Number: (202) 693-3984

Labor Department Awards Nearly $3.7 Million
To Faith-Based And Community Organizations

WASHINGTON - Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao today announced grants totaling nearly $3.7 million to eight intermediary faith-based and community organizations. The grants will allow these intermediaries to connect "grassroots" faith-based and community-based organizations and the people they serve with local One-Stop Career Centers, the heart of the public workforce investment system.

"The President is committed to helping all Americans access the tools they need to enter the workforce and advance on their career tracks," said Chao. "Faith-based and community organizations can help reach the hardest to serve populations in our poorest neighborhoods. They are a trusted doorway through which their constituents can connect with the employment and training support offered by the public workforce investment system."

"Soft skills" training - strong work ethic, self-confidence, punctuality, courtesy - and other services, such as transportation, childcare and volunteer assistance are contributions frequently made by grassroots organizations. These can be coordinated with training, job and career services offered at local One-Stop Career Centers to serve jobseekers better.

"Our grants have sought out some of the best and most visionary non-profits in the country to help bring their technical skills to the front-line faith-based and community groups," said Brent Orrell, the director of the Center for Faith-based and Community Initiatives at the U.S. Department of Labor. "These grants are about creating a workable 'division of labor' between larger and smaller non-profit organizations. The grantees handle the paperwork and help build capacity among the smaller organizations while the small organizations are left to do what they do best: help people."

Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training Emily Stover DeRocco said, "Connecting faith-based and community organizations with the public workforce investment system is a perfect marriage - each complements and supplements the other. Leveraging resources will close gaps in service and allow quicker achievement of a common goal - getting more Americans back to work in good jobs at good pay."

Intermediary organizations, in addition to sub-granting a substantial portion of their awards to eligible local organizations, will attempt to increase the number of such organizations that are actively committed to partnership with the One-Stop delivery system.

The grants to faith-based and community intermediaries are awarded for one year.

NOTE: A list of grantees and the amount of each award follows.

FAITH BASED GRANTS FOR INTERMEDIARIES