America’s Promise Alliance awards grants to five communities to help engage business community in reducing dropout rates

United Way for the Greater New Orleans Area has been awarded a business engagement grant in the amount of $10,000 from America’s Promise Alliance. The purpose of this grant is to help educate the business community about the dropout crisis and what’s being done to address it locally. It also seeks to engage businesses as active contributors and drivers, to help increase high school graduation rates.

Headed by the United Way for the Greater New Orleans Area through the New Orleans Kids Partnership (NOKP), the local grant will be used to host events and fund activities that build on the work already underway as a result of the New Orleans’ Solutions Summit held in early 2010.  

As part of this grant, United Way will bring together representatives from the local business community to build awareness of and to discuss opportunities for their engagement in the region’s dropout prevention work. This includes recruiting more businesses and professionals to offer job internships and become mentors for young people.

The grant will also provide funding for mini career fairs and career development workshops at 10 area high schools. The first event was held on May 18th at the New Orleans Science & Math Academy in New Orleans East, where sixty 10th graders heard presentations from several career speakers.

“This is a wonderful way to connect civically-minded professionals that are interested in sharing their life and career paths with young people,” says Julia McNabb, Director of Youth and Education Initiatives at United Way. “These personal stories of challenges and success are truly effective in demonstrating there is no ‘perfect path’ but rather one of hard work, dedication and persistence. This particular grant also enables us to also extend our mentorship pairings for local youth, as oftentimes career speakers wish to continue their volunteer experience, spending valuable time as a mentor.”    

“The dropout crisis is as much an economic issue as an educational one and the business community is uniquely impacted by the young people who do not finish high school,” says Marguerite W. Kondracke, president and CEO, America’s Promise Alliance. “Whether it is the costs associated with remedial training, or the  lack of a talented available workforce, helping our young people see the link between the classroom and a career is a proven way to decrease dropout rates, and who better to help us do that than the business community themselves?”

Five other communities have also received business engagement grants from America’s Promise: Detroit, Michigan; Jackson, Mississippi; Louisville, Kentucky; and Nashville, Tennessee.

The New Orleans Kids Partnership (NOKP) is a voluntary collaboration among those who serve, support, engage and empower children and youth in the Greater New Orleans area.  Working together, NOKP develops, shares, coordinates and leverages resources so that all children and youth reach their optimal potential. The NOKP believes that systemic and deliberate coordination around mentorship and tutoring programs will help all youth succeed. Its desire is to see a caring adult in the life of every child.

For more information on this grant program, as well as the work United Way is doing through the New Orleans Kids Partnership, please email contact@nokp.org, or visit www.nokp.org.