Northern New Mexico Coalition for Work-Based Learning Partner Wins $6.4 Million Federal Grant
LANL Foundation is celebrating the recent announcement by US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo that North Central New Mexico Economic Development District and other Northern New Mexico Coalition for Work-Based Learning partners have been awarded a $6.4 million federal grant. LANL Foundation is proud to be a co-founder of the Coalition and to provide it with backbone coordination and staffing support.
This American Rescue Plan Good Jobs Challenge grant was a top Coalition priority in its first year of operation. The grant will be used to create the Northern New Mexico Workforce Integration Network (WIN), a healthcare, building, and construction workforce training program.
Building on this enormous accomplishment, the Coalition adopted a Year 2 Action Plan focused on four new priority areas: coordination & guidance, advocacy & awareness, employer engagement & leadership, and partnerships. The Year 2 Action Plan identifies outcomes for each of these areas along with three specific actions to achieve these outcomes.
New action teams are being formed now. If you are interested in learning more or joining one of these action teams, please contact LANL Foundation Vice President of Career Pathways and Advocacy Alvin Warren at alvin@lanlfoundation.org. LANL Foundation is proud to be a co-founder of the Coalition and to provide it with backbone coordination and staffing support.
NM Broadband Equity Fund Makes Grants to Hardest-to-Connect NM Communities
The New Mexico Broadband Collective, cofounded by LANL Foundation in partnership with the New Mexico Foundation and Groundworks New Mexico, awarded inaugural grants to six entities through its New Mexico Broadband Equity Fund.
The Collective created the Fund and raised $355,000 to allocate to nonprofits, counties, Tribes, Nations, and Pueblos to support broadband equity in our hardest-to-connect communities in New Mexico. Grantees will use the funding to develop solutions that will work best for them to support reliable and affordable broadband and to enable them to compete for the unprecedented federal and state broadband funding now available.
The competitive grants were selected by a grantmaking committee of community volunteers and funded by multiple local, regional, and national sources. LANL Foundation contributed $110,000 to the Broadband Equity Fund, and LANL Foundation Vice President of Career Pathways and Advocacy Alvin Warren is the co-chair of the Collective. (Link to: https://lanlfoundation.org/news/new-mexico-broadband-equity-fund-makes-six-grants-supporting-broadband-access-across-ne/)
Partnership Launched to Support the Native American Workforce Partners
In May, LANL Foundation contracted with New Mexico Community Capital to assist the New Mexico Native American Workforce Partners (NAWP) with professional development for its members as well as to assist with coordination and collaboration among its members.
The NAWP is an informal association of Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and P.L. 102-477-funded staff supporting Pueblos, Tribes, and Nations throughout New Mexico. In particular, New Mexico Community Capital will provide two “train-the-trainer” sessions and two professional development sessions to 15 NAWP members to increase their abilities to fulfill their job responsibilities and program objectives. They will also organize two quarterly NAWP meetings, develop an online platform for NAWP members to store and share information, and organize a 4-hour NAWP retreat (in-person or virtual) to discuss the future of the NAWP and develop a strategic plan.
