Today we’re pleased to share two significant gifts from the Hummingbird Foundation and Connelly Foundation which will each help fuel our commitment to creating career pathways and intra-sector career mobility for Philadelphians.
The Hummingbird Foundation has committed $750,000 over three years to advance key priorities aimed at connecting more Philadelphians to high-quality healthcare career paths. In addition to connecting hundreds of jobseekers into living wage roles in healthcare, the life sciences, and advanced manufacturing, this dynamic funding partnership will advance the development of a Medical Assistant to Registered Nurse career pipeline and create internal capacity to provide end-to end support for jobseekers and employers in healthcare cohorts. The aim of these interventions is to increase program graduation and retention rates and make the upward economic mobility pathway clear for alumni seeking to grow their careers.
Including this award, Hummingbird has invested $1.25M into The Skills Initiative since 2023 to bolster economic mobility in the Philadelphia area.
We’re also sharing a renewed partnership with the Connelly Foundation to support jobseekers training for middle-skilled roles and expanding capacity for our healthcare industry partnership. The foundation has awarded $500,000 over two years for this effort. This funding significantly strengthens The Skills Initiative’s impact on economic mobility for Philadelphians. Middle-skills jobs are defined as roles that require more education or certification than a high school diploma and less than a bachelor’s degree. With under 65% of Philadelphians possessing a bachelor’s degree, middle-skill roles in key industries like healthcare, the life sciences, and union trades will be a key driver for unlocking economic opportunity for local talent.
The grant will also increase staff capacity for the newly launched Healthcare Collaborative of Greater Philadelphia (HCGP), a project of The Skills Initiative. The HCGP brings together local healthcare employers to identify and implement cutting-edge workforce solutions in the industry that address talent recruitment and retention challenges while opening up pathways to increased economic opportunity in the field. HCGP mirrors the Keystone Life Science Collaborative, launched by UCD in early 2024 to unite Philadelphia’s life science organizations.
Over the course of our partnership, the Connelly Foundation has invested more than $1M to strengthen our impact in workforce development, including a transformative investment in moving The Skills Initiative from serving University City anchor institutions and West Philadelphians to citywide programming.
We are thankful for the enduring partnerships from both the Hummingbird Foundation and the Connelly Foundation.
