The Promise is seeking partners for the Jobs and Opportunities Community Challenge, focused on record sealing and employment access.
Donor Name: The Promise
State: Pennsylvania
City: Philadelphia
Type of Grant: Challenge
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 01/14/2022
Size of the Grant: $200,000-$400,000
Grant Duration: 12 months
Details:
This is the second in a series of Community Challenges under a first-of-its-kind public-private anti-poverty program created to produce efficient, community-based, and scalable results.
The Jobs and Opportunity Community Challenge: Record Sealing and Employment Access will combat poverty by removing barriers to employment. This is in direct response to the more than 400,000 Philadelphians with arrest and conviction records. These Philadelphians face many obstacles returning to the workforce including limitations on credentialing and licensure and policies precluding them from certain positions and employers.
The Challenge will specifically focus on partnerships with deep community reach and/or legal expertise. Community Hub grantees will collaborate on outreach and engagement and host record sealing and clearing clinics. Legal Services grantees will provide direct services such as awareness about Clean Slate laws, identifying records eligible for sealing or expungement, filing petitions to help seal or clear past records, and support for seeking and securing employment.
The Record Sealing & Employment Access Community Challenge is made up of two unique but mutually reliant grant opportunities, each with distinct goals, deliverables, and expectations.
- Community Hubs
- Legal Services
Funding Information
- Community Hubs
- Program Area: Community Partnerships
- Amount: $35,000 – $55,000.
- Applicants may propose budgets up to $55,000 for up to twelve months.
- Legal Services
- Program Area: Legal Services
- Amount: $200,000 – $400,000.
Eligibility and Requirements
To be eligible to apply, applicants must have these core elements in place:
- Must serve low-income communities and the mission must align with advancing individuals and families economically
- Ability to offer services at significant scale
- Demonstrated success in convening partners and bundling resource to maximize outcomes and increase access for community members
- Ability to track and report outcomes, including total financial and nonfinancial resources accessed, and participate in comprehensive evaluation
- Must be able to implement and operate the program between March 2022 and March 2023
- Applicant must have had an independent review or audit of their finances within the last two years
- Applicant must be a non-profit or educational institution with IRS code Section 501(c) (3) and 509(a) (1), (2) or (3), or Section 170(c); or a public entity
Special consideration and priority will be given to applicants that exhibit the following characteristics:
- An organizational commitment to diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion that is clearly reflected across all administrative and programmatic aspects of the service model
- Deep community reach, access, and trust in a defined geographic area or among a defined population which is challenged with high rates of poverty and unemployment
- Experience working with evaluation partners and conducting rigorous assessments
- Thoughtful integration of the following offerings/services:
- Employment services
- Job training & placement opportunities
- Career counseling and coaching
- Education and certification
- Housing subsidies and/or rental support
- Food and basic needs referrals
- Financial literacy
- A well-constructed and vetted plan for delivering services during and following the COVID-19 pandemic while ensuring the health and safety of clients and program staff.
For more information, visit The Promise.
