Advance Together: Four community partnerships receive grants, coaching to further economic inclusion programs

Four regional partnerships in Texas were selected for the second phase of Advance Together™, the Dallas Fed’s initiative to promote economic inclusion through cross-sector, collaborative leadership. Collectively, the partnerships serve communities in 25 counties across Texas, representing both urban and rural areas.

Each partnership will receive $300,000 in external funding to implement their plans to address education and workforce challenges in their community, as well as training and coaching to increase the impact of their programs.

Community partnerships

Advance Together’s independent selection committee, made up of 12 state- and national-level experts in workforce development and education, chose the community grantees based on applications following completion of the first phase:

• Educate Midland & Education Partnership of the Permian Basin strives to increase the percentage of economically disadvantaged children in Midland-Odessa who are ready for kindergarten, reading on grade level by third grade and entering the workforce with the proper skills.
• Big Country Manufacturing Alliance in Abilene seeks to increase regional employment in middle-skill, high-wage manufacturing careers.
• Family Pathways 2-Gen Coalition in Austin provides comprehensive services and financial incentives for student parents, helping them complete degree programs in high-demand careers that pay a living wage.
• Deep East Texas College and Career Alliance in Jasper works to create a local talent pipeline of graduates with post-high-school credentials who can fulfill the needs of area employers in growing industry sectors.

What’s next for the community partnerships?

The community partnerships will each receive $100,000 per year for three years. Grantees will primarily use funding to hire staff that support achieving their goals in the community.

Training and coaching for the community partnerships will focus on promising practices in collaborative leadership, community engagement, racial equity and changing systems to overcome entrenched barriers. The teams will also have the opportunity to network with each other throughout the year.

“We’re building a community of learning across our grantee teams,” said Kseniya Benderskaya, a member of the Dallas Fed’s Advance Together team. “We want to provide a space for them to tackle hard questions about the problems they are trying to solve in their community.”

Throughout 2021, we’ll feature stories on each community partnership on Dallas Fed Communities, profiling their promising approaches to workforce development and education, and sharing how Advance Together is helping them build a brighter economic future for the people in their communities.

About Advance Together

The Dallas Fed leads Advance Together in partnership with Educate Texas, United Ways of Texas and a steering committee of experts. It coordinates the program but does not fundraise, provide grants or participate in the selection of grantees. Funding partners include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, Texas Mutual and the Meadows Foundation.