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Press Release

Foundation Awards $350,000 in Pathways to Prosperity (P2P) Grants

The Women’s Foundation of Minnesota has awarded $350,000 in grants to eight organizations through its Pathways to Prosperity (P2P) Fund. Through P2P, the Women’s Foundation aims to create unrestricted pathways to economic security and prosperity for low-income women, women of color and American Indian women, and women in Greater Minnesota. Through P2P, the Foundation awards grants to innovative programs at nonprofit organizations or community/technical colleges that focus on workforce development, wealth-building, or entrepreneurship. Funded programs also focus on providing wrap-around support services including childcare, financial literacy, and transportation.

Grantee-Partners:

Dunwoody College of Technology (Minneapolis) |$50,000 — To support the Women in Technical Careers program, a cohort of underrepresented, low-income female students entering high-paying, high-demand fields, such as construction science and building technology, computer technology, automotive technology, and robotics and manufacturing.

Friends of Saint Paul College (St. Paul) |$50,000 — To support low-income women and women of color in the Women in Trade Careers cohort at Saint Paul College. The cohort will persist through pathways leading to middle-skilled trades employment and receive comprehensive support through scholarships, mentorship, emergency funds, and networking and career exploration workshops and events.

Minnesota State Colleges & Universities—Hibbing Community College (Hibbing)|$50,000 — To support Hibbing Community College’s EMPOWER program, connecting underrepresented women from the Iron Range region to employment opportunities in high-wage, high-demand careers, including law enforcement, diesel mechanics, electrical maintenance, heating and cooling, automotive mechanics, and information technology.

Minnesota State Colleges & Universities—Northwest Technical College (Bemidji) |$50,000 — To support Northwest Technical College’s Coding the Path from Poverty to Hope program, offered in partnership with Leech Lake Tribal College and Red Lake Tribal College, to help women enter the medical coding field.

Minnesota State Community & Technical College (Moorhead)|$50,000 — To support Minnesota women of color and low-income women in the engineering and technology program at the Moorhead campus with strategic recruiting, mentoring, advising, support services, and study tables.

Nexus Community Partners (St. Paul) |$25,000 — To support the North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship (NSBCF). The NSBCF is a four-month program that reclaims the rich history of cooperation in black American communities and makes generating community wealth possible. Fellows learn in a supportive cohort environment from a curriculum rooted in local and national history, and leave equipped with the knowledge, tools, and a support system to launch cooperative enterprises.

Northside Economic Opportunity Network (Minneapolis)|$25,000 — To support emerging and established women entrepreneurs by providing business development technical assistance, including Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) certification, relocation services, finding office space, industry-specific business incubation services, and more.

YWCA of St. Paul (St. Paul) |$50,000 — To support the Commercial Driver’s License training program, which helps people on the road to success by earning a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL). After successfully completing training, participants are qualified for good-paying jobs in construction, highway maintenance, transit and other in-demand industries.

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