A Special Message from Dan Ryan & Roger Hinshaw
Dear friends & colleagues,
You are an important stakeholder in the well-being of our community, and we know you share our interest in keeping Oregon moving forward. So we are writing to share exciting news that will have impact well into the future.
As you may know, each year in the Portland market, Bank of America selects one local nonprofit organization to receive the Neighborhood Builder Award. The winning nonprofit receives a $200,000 cash gift plus leadership training. This Builder Award is a major investment for Bank of America and for the past 14 years, it’s been the cornerstone of local philanthropy efforts.
Today that tradition continues: we are pleased to announce that All Hands Raised was selected as this year’s $200,000 Builder winner, which was announced on KGW-TV’s Portland Today segment. All Hands Raised was chosen through a very competitive process, where they rose to the top for their innovative work in mobilizing support to ensure young people in Multnomah County achieve their full potential.
This latest grant builds on the partnership between our organizations that started many years ago. We are both pleased that our collaboration can further grow and evolve in order to have even greater scope and impact.
The timing of this $200,000 gift is especially strategic, since All Hands Raised will use this new investment to fully launch a Pathways to Construction & Manufacturing Careers program in partnership with six area high schools, which collectively serve 12,000 students. This investment will strengthen All Hands Raised’s ability to create opportunities among local youth for long-term employment in living-wage careers. This effort will focus on strengthening the connection between high schools, training programs and industry – all while increasing options for students beyond traditional four-year colleges and the military.
More than 30,000 construction and manufacturing jobs will be added in the Portland region over the next 10 years. Yet pathways to those careers are not currently in place since local career-technical education programs have not recovered from past cuts, nor fully aligned with current needs of local industries. Which makes this Pathways to Construction & Manufacturing Careers program all the more critical – bringing together students, parents, teachers, local employers and career training programs around shared goals for growing opportunities for our youth, and in turn for our region’s long-term economic prosperity.
So against that backdrop, we are both looking forward to this enhanced partnership between our organizations, where we’ll work together to support even more youth on their path to achieving economic self-sufficiency. Additional details can be found in our joint press release.
Sincerely,
