Over the summer Temple University’s Lenfest North Philadelphia Workforce Initiative received a grant from The Lenfest Foundation.
On Wednesday September 25th The Esperanza careerlink center hosted representatives from 16 partner organizations of Temple University to strategize about how they can connect more North Philadelphia residents to employment using the grant.
Shirley Moy, the executive director of the Lenfest North Philadelphia Workforce Initiative, organized the event. She explained the initiative “So this initiative is to be able to give money to community groups that are partnering with Temple University, to develop programs that will help people get that goal of family sustaining wages.”
The Lenfest foundation was founded by Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest, in the last 20 years they’ve given away over $1 billion. Current Director Wes Somerville explained why they chose Temple: “North Philadelphia has some challenges, there is a lot of poverty in North Philadelphia. Utilizing Temple as an anchor and Temple located in North Philadelphia, the need of the community around Temple are great.”
Somerville said that within the next three years, The Lenfest Foundation plans to liquidate and distribute all remaining resources.
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