PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — An area nonprofit has received big bucks to help thousands of people find employment in a range of industries.
Philadelphia Works is a nonprofit that helps people in Southeastern Pennsylvania find jobs and train to do those jobs. Thanks to a substantial grant, Philadelphia Works will be working in overdrive.
"We were named an awardee in the Good Jobs Challenge, which was a federal grant opportunity. We were awarded $22.8 million for helping get folks into good jobs," said Patricia Blumenauer, the organization's vice president of operations and data.
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Blumenauer said they're using that money to help get people jobs in the healthcare and life sciences industries, the energy industry with a focus on smart and clean energy, and in the infrastructure industry with a focus on construction and building.
"Over the next three years, we'll go through a planning and system development phase, where we'll work with employers to build out programs that will help build a pipeline to jobs," she detailed. "Once we kind of pass the planning phase, we'll move into actually getting folks trained up and connected with jobs."
Blumenauer said their goal is to get between 3,000 and 4,000 people in those jobs over the next three years.