American Student Assistance (ASA), a national education and career-readiness nonprofit, has announced 30 grants totaling $17.7 million to mission-aligned, youth-serving organizations in 14 states.
The grants will enable recipients to scale access to opportunities that improve career readiness outcomes for students in middle and high school with an emphasis on work-based learning, social capital, education and career pathways, and career exploration. Recipients include The Education Trust in Washington, D.C., ($1.5 million over three years), which will expand its middle school career learning programs; SparkNC ($1 million over two years), which will bolster its statewide STEM career readiness programs across 20 school districts in North Carolina; and Partners for Youth with Disabilities in Boston ($300,000 over three years), which aims to build out its career immersion efforts, including individualized one-to-one and small group job counseling.
“Our philanthropic grantmaking efforts in the youth career readiness arena have been critical in gaining valuable insight on what works best for young people, fueling innovation, expanding opportunity, elevating voices, and informing needed policy change,” said ASA executive vice president Julie Lammers. “We…look forward to continuing our work with mission-aligned organizations looking to move the career-connected learning field forward to drive policy and systems change.”
For a complete list of recipients, see the ASA press release.
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