Year Up Arizona Receives $750K Grant

The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation has given a $750,000 grant to Year Up Arizona. The organization offers a free, one-year job training curriculum for motivated low-income young adults who are not currently in school or employed.

The grant will allow Year Up Arizona to serve additional youth at its campus at GateWay Community College in Phoenix. Students receive the education needed to develop in-demand technical and professional skills before participating in a six-month internship with a top local company, earning college credits and a weekly stipend throughout the year.

“Although our economy is strong, we believe that an important segment of our society is being left behind,” Renee Parsons says. “We’re proud to have supported the initial launch of Year Up programming in Arizona and have been impressed with both the impact of the program and the growth over the last three years.”

In 2015, the foundation provided a $500,000 grant to help launch the Year Up program in Arizona, and with this most recent donation it is the organization’s largest financial supporter with a total investment of $1.25 million.

A federally sponsored evaluation conducted by Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education found that the Year Up program has the largest positive impact on earnings for a workforce program tested in a randomized controlled trial.

Since its inception, Year Up Arizona has provided more than 530 young adults with in-demand skills training. The program now serves more than 200 young adults each year, with 90 percent of graduates employed or attending a college full-time within four months of completing the programing.

PHOTO COURTESY YEAR UP ARIZONA

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