Sponsor: Workforce Solutions
Title
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Donation from Sundance Family Foundation to the Workforce Solutions Department
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Recommendation
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Accept the donation of $50,000 from Sundance Family Foundation to the Workforce Solutions Department for continuation of youth workforce development efforts.
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Background and Rationale
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Founded in 2003, the Sundance Family Foundation has been providing resources and support to youth employment organizations and programs for 20 years. With a mission to “accelerate youth development and strengthen family stability”, the foundation has been a champion for youth in Ramsey County. The foundation has partnered with Ramsey County for many years, including as a private grant funder for the first cohort of the Young Adult Career Academy program, which has continued successfully for three years.
The Sundance Family Foundation has helped to lay a critical foundation for the wider work to align and enhance the youth employment ecosystem in Ramsey County, and has:
• Invested in Earn and Learn.
• Leveraged convening influence demonstrating the power of partnership.
• Supported critical pivots during the COVID pandemic.
• Impacted systems change with partners including employers and government entities.
The Sundance Family Foundation will be closing in December 2023. Because of Workforce Solution’s long-standing partnership and continued work in this space, the foundation is providing an Accelerating Prosperity Pathways gift of $50,000 to Ramsey County. Workforce Solutions will use this gift to continue to support Earn & Learn programs, build alignments and intentionality to ensure practitioners have access to resources and employers, build additional networks of employers to support young people and leverage tools developed by the foundation to amplify best practices for youth employment services.
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County Goals (Check those advanced by Action)
☒ Well-being ☒ Prosperity ☒ Opportunity ☐ Accountability
Racial Equity Impact
Ramsey County Workforce Solutions will use this donation to continue to build a youth employment ecosystem that ensures that Black, Indigenous and other racially and ethnically diverse young people will have access to opportunity. Through the continued work of increasing collaboration and reducing competition, Workforce Solutions will help partner programs and organization reach young people most in need of employment and education supports.
Community Participation Level and Impact
The Sundance Family Foundation has chosen to provide this donation to Ramsey County based on their own goals and plans, and with limited community input.
☒ Inform ☐ Consult ☐ Involve ☐ Collaborate ☐ Empower
Fiscal Impact
The $50,000 donation from the Sundance Family Foundation is new revenue and will be accounted for in an existing project, Youth Works Initiative, which holds other fundings provided by foundations for youth and young adult employment efforts.
Last Previous Action
None.
Attachments
1. Letter from Sundance Family Foundation