KeyBank Invests $500,000 in Boys & Girls Clubs Teen Workforce Programs in Seattle and Portland
Key’s largest single gift in the Northwest will help provide career training to underserved youth in the Northwest
CLEVELAND, March 11, 2015 /3BL Media/ – KeyBank has teamed up with the Boys & Girls Clubs of King County (BGCKC) in Washington and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland (BGCP) in Oregon to launch and expand YouthForce, an innovative workforce development program for local, underserved teens. The three-year grant, which is funded by an unprecedented gift of $500,000 from the KeyBank Foundation in the Northwest, will allow the YouthForce program already under way in Seattle to increase its capacity and will establish the program in Portland.
YouthForce helps low-income youth prepare for college, careers and life by pairing job preparedness training with paid summer, seasonal, or year-long internships at Seattle companies such as Microsoft, Walmart, Seattle Sounders FC, Seattle Seahawks, and CenturyLink Stadium, or with the Portland Timbers, the first Portland-area business to pledge internships to the new program.
“The YouthForce program is transformational not only for the participating teens, but for the local economy as well,” said Lorraine Vega, Senior Vice President of Corporate Philanthropy at KeyBank Foundation. “By helping to fund this innovative program, we fulfill our commitment to bettering our communities through building a stronger workforce and providing at-risk youth with the tools they need to become economically self-sufficient.”
In Seattle, the KeyBank Foundation grant will enable YouthForce to enroll 68 additional teens over the next three years, representing a 120 percent increase in capacity in their Career Internship Program that now serves 28 youth. In Portland, the grant is expected to allow 75 youth to enroll in the YouthForce program, which will launch in early spring 2015.
In addition to funding, Key bankers will staff YouthForce University, a volunteer-taught basic money management curriculum developed by KeyBank.
To learn more about YouthForce and see the program in action in Seattle, visit: www.yf.positiveplace.org; https://www.youtube.com/user/YouthForceBGC/feed; https://www.facebook.com/YouthForceRocks. To view photos taken by Oregon Live of the YouthForce program in action in Portland, visit: http://www.oregonlive.com/timbers/index.ssf/2015/01/portland_timbers_to_offer_paid.html.
About KeyBank Foundation:
The KeyBank Foundation, a 46-year old nonprofit charitable foundation funded by KeyCorp, makes philanthropic investments in organizations and programs that build thriving communities. The Foundation’s funding priorities are fostering thriving students, through grants to academic programs, and fostering a thriving workforce, through grants made to workforce development and job creation programs. The Foundation also supports thriving communities through service, including employee volunteerism, contributions to the civic good, and charitable sponsorships. All grant-making takes into consideration how grantees and programming incorporate the values of diversity and inclusion. For each of the past eight years, KeyBank Foundation has given approximately $18 million to nonprofit organizations across the nation, in the form of philanthropy, corporate contributions, and volunteerism.
About KeyCorp:
KeyCorp was organized more than 160 years ago and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. One of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, Key had assets of approximately $93.8 billion at December 31, 2014.Key provides deposit, lending, cash management and investment services to individuals and small and mid-sized businesses in 12 states under the name KeyBank National Association. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name.
CONTACT:
Vice President Marylee Gotch
PR Manager, KeyBank
marylee_a_gotch@keybank.com
216-471-2880
