Kresge Foundation: Boosting Opportunities for Social and Economic Mobility for Families

Note: The above deadline is for the Grantee Portal (Fluxx) Registration Deadline. The Letter of inquiry deadline is July 26, 2019.

Boosting Opportunities for Social and Economic Mobility for Families (BOOST) will support existing partnerships between Achieving the Dream community colleges and nonprofit human services organizations that connect people in cities with low incomes to critical human services supports and educational pathways that advance social and economic mobility.

Kresge Foundation seeks solutions that bring together community colleges’ educational pathways, human services nonprofits’ supportive services, and workforce development’s career pathways. These partnerships should address barriers to upward mobility such as a lack of knowledge about high-quality educational programs; the need to juggle multiple responsibilities such as work and family; inadequate childcare; food and housing insecurity; and others identified by the community.

In addition to supporting adults to and through postsecondary education, proposed work should also address their post-completion destination, namely entry into family-supporting careers. Drawing on Jobs for the Future’s (JFF’s) framework, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) Living Wage Calculator, or other national resources, and local data analysis, respondents should identify family-sustaining jobs with characteristics of either springboard or lifetime jobs in their city and the educational pathways and supports that will enable the ultimate beneficiaries of their partnerships to access and succeed in them.

In bringing together effective practices of human services nonprofits and community colleges with more informed approaches to careers, funded proposals will blend thoughtful programs with broader system changes such as improved cross-sector coordination, strengthened data systems, and outcome metrics; new financing models; and policies and practices that support social and economic mobility. For more information, Nancy Latham’s A Practical Guide to Evaluating Systems Change in a Human Services System Context.

The proposed work should address the systemic barriers preventing collaboration at scale with substantial impact and include a plan for sustainability after the grant ends. Because partnerships benefit from ongoing learning and evaluation activities, proposals that include individual grant evaluations will be scored more favorably.

Amount: A total of $3,600,000 is available to make up to eight grants that range up to $450,000 each over three years. Applicants may propose a six-month planning period.

Eligibility: Partnerships between community colleges and human services nonprofits in cities. For the purpose of this opportunity, a city must adhere to U.S. Census Bureau’s definition of a Metropolitan Statistical Area that contains a city of 50,000 or more people. A qualifying partnership must include at least one community college and at least one human services nonprofit organization that meets the following requirements:

1. The human services nonprofit(s) must advance social and economic mobility of their clients, and exhibit the qualities of Next Generation (NextGen) Human Services organizations, which:

• Are person-centered
• Are outcomes-based
• Are data-driven
• Apply a racial equity lens
• Focus on greater sector impact and systems change

The direct service nonprofits should also apply a two-generation, whole-family approach as defined by Ascend at the Aspen Institute. The two generation, whole family approach focuses equally and intentionally on services and opportunities for the child and the adults in their lives, including the important role of fathers. They articulate and track outcomes for both children and adults simultaneously. The core components of two-generation, whole-family approaches include education, economic supports, social capital, and health and well-being.

2. The community college(s) must be an Achieving the Dream member(s) located in a city. Achieving the Dream colleges have the requisite building blocks for this opportunity, such as stronger data capacity and a commitment to racial equity. A listing of Achieving the Dream colleges located in New Mexico can be found at: https://www.achievingthedream.org/our-network?section=state#college-group-new-mexico.

Link: https://kresge.org/library/boost?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BOOST

Notes: A webinar will be held on June 27, 2019.

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