November 10, 2021, Chicago – Southside Community Optimal Redevelopment Enterprise (SCORE), a community development entity supported by McCaffery Interests Inc., is pleased to announce that it has made a grant of $350,000 to Skills for Chicagoland’s Future (Skills) through its nonprofit affiliate, the Joint-County Opportunity Benefit Support (JOBS) Fund.
“At Skills we are honored to be receiving this generous grant from McCaffery via their SCORE-CDE JOBS fund. This funding will go directly to our work connecting and placing unemployed and underemployed community members into jobs,” said Marie Trzupek Lynch, President and CEO of Skills. “Thank you McCaffery for your commitment to support Chicago’s underinvested communities.”
Awarded $50 million in New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutes (CDFI) Fund in the 2020 distribution round, SCORE seeks to invest in operating businesses and community education and healthcare facilities within highly distressed, low-income areas that have experienced a loss of skilled employment, educational achievement, and adequate access to goods and services. Financed by SCORE’s NMTC activity, the JOBS Fund makes grants and loans to organizations focused on economic growth and job training within these areas.
“We are proud to support Skills for Chicagoland’s Future and help the organization grow its mission to create solutions for employers and provide economic opportunities for unemployed and underemployed individuals,” said McCaffery President, Ed Woodbury. “The grant will allow Skills to expand its footprint in the city to reach a greater number of people in need.”
About Skills for Chicagoland’s Future
Skills for Chicagoland’s Future is a nonprofit working to increase economic mobility of under and unemployed community members by connecting them to quality jobs through deep partnerships and understanding of the unique human capital needs of a network of engaged employers. Since Skills launched in September 2012, thousands of unemployed/underemployed job seekers have been placed at a growing list of employer partners. Skills also supports the efforts of corporations interested in locating operations and bringing jobs to Chicago’s underinvested neighborhoods.
As a national thought leader in creating innovative, demand-driven workforce solutions, Skills has been tapped as a resource demonstrating the need for business intermediaries both locally and nationally. Beyond Skills’ local impact, the nonprofit provides consulting services for organizations interested in developing or adapting the Skills demand-driven model in their region.
About JOBS and SCORE-CDE
The JOBS Fund is a 501c(3) that supports job training, educational programming, childcare and other community benefit programs designed to support the health and welfare of low-income persons in low-income communities. A nonprofit affiliate of the Chicago-based Southside Community Optimal Redevelopment Enterprise (SCORE) whose mission is to invest New Markets Tax Credits in operating businesses, community-driven education and healthcare facilities that provide living wage jobs in highly distressed, low-income communities in Illinois and Indiana, the JOBS Fund uses profits from SCORE’s NMTC activity to make grants and loans to organizations focused on economic growth and job training within these areas.
Sponsored by McCaffery Interests, SCORE aligns with the company’s founding mission to transform urban neighborhoods in ways that inspire community, create opportunities and foster the ideals of smart growth. Since it was first established in 2017, the JOBS Fund has facilitated $1.25 million in grants to urban revitalization and community support efforts. More than 90% of these projects have been in disadvantaged communities.