Coach Foundation Announces Partnerships With The Opportunity Network, Bottom Line and Year Up With $1M Donation to Expand Education Opportunities for the Next Generation

NEW YORK, Aug. 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Coach Foundation announces partnerships with The Opportunity Network, Bottom Line and Year Up as part of Coach's Dream It Real initiative. Through the initiative's mission to help break cycles of inequality, Coach empowers the next generation to reach their full potential through higher education. To celebrate the new partnerships, the Coach Foundation made a donation of $1 million in support of the nonprofits and their work. To date, the Coach Foundation has given over $3.5 million to support its Dream It Real mission initiative globally.

The Opportunity Network, Bottom Line and Year Up each work to drive equity across higher education for under-represented students and students from low income communities, with a vision of expanding education and opportunity for all. Each offers resources, coaching, and community to young people at critical junctures—the transitions from secondary education to higher education to career—when under-resourced students are seen to encounter barriers to pursuing their dreams.

The commitment reflects Coach's dedication to help break down the systemic barriers that prevent others from discovering their path and purpose—and living more authentically. Working with students in cities across North America, these partners all share Coach's values of optimism, authenticity and inclusion.

"I'm proud to continue our commitment to Dream It Real with The Opportunity Network, Bottom Line and Year Up, three partners who share our vision and values," said Interim CEO and Brand President of Coach, Todd Kahn. "It is our goal to fight inequality by empowering under-represented students through education, and to help provide the resources, skills and mentoring they need to make their dreams a reality."

Based in New York, The Opportunity Network ignites the drive, curiosity, and agency of under-represented students across the country to and through college and into thriving careers through its Career Fluency^® model and programs. Bottom Line, serving students in Boston, New York, Chicago and Worcester, helps low-income and first generation students to get to college and stay in college through one-on-one mentoring and guidance, and secure a mobilizing job with six months of graduation. Year Up works to close the opportunity divide by ensuring young adults gain the skills, experiences, and support that will empower them to reach their potential through careers and higher education.

Learn more about Dream It Real here.

About Coach
Coach is a leading design house of modern luxury accessories and lifestyle collections, with a long-standing reputation built on quality craftsmanship. The brand approaches design with a modern vision, reimagining luxury for today with an authenticity and innovation that is uniquely Coach. All over the world, the Coach name is synonymous with effortless New York style.

Coach is a Tapestry, Inc. brand.  Tapestry is publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker TPR.

About The Coach Foundation
Founded in 2008, the Coach Foundation brings Coach's philanthropic initiatives to life. To date it has granted more than $50 million to nonprofit partners all over the world to do its small part to make big dreams possible. For more information, please visit http://coach.com/dreamitreal.

About The Opportunity Network
The Opportunity Network (OppNet) was founded in New York City with our signature Fellows program that provides robust college access and persistence supports as well as dynamic career exposure and readiness, including 5 summers of internerhips or enrichment programs, for 950 students across 6+ years, starting the summer after 10th grade through to college graduation. Fellows' outcomes far exceed national trends with 92% graduating from college within six years and 89% securing gainful employment or graduate school admissions within six months of college graduation. In addition to the Fellows Program, OppNet has an immersive capacity-building Partnerships program for schools and youth-serving organizations across the country looking to accelerate postsecondary and workforce readiness for their students. This year, OppNet worked with more than 40 schools and organizations across 20 cities reaching more than 8,000 students nationally. To learn more, visit www.opportunitynetwork.org.

About Bottom Line
Bottom Line is dedicated to helping first generation students from low income backgrounds get into college, graduate, and go far in life. We partner directly with underserved students to fulfill their ambitions to select the right college, earn a Bachelor's degree, and secure a first job that will launch their careers.  Our vision is to dramatically transform urban communities by producing thousands of new career-ready college graduates. As one of the first community based organizations to focus on college completion, we now operate regional programs in Boston (where we were founded in 1997), New York City, and Chicago, collectively serving over 8,100 students. With almost 2 800 alumni, our historical graduation rate is 78 percent, almost 20 percentage points above the national average. To learn more, visit www.bottomline.org.

About Year Up
Year Up is a national 501(c)3 workforce development organization committed to ensuring equitable access to economic opportunity, education, and justice for all young adults—no matter their background, income, or zip code. Employers face a growing need for talent, yet there are millions of talented young adults being overlooked, and these inequities only further perpetuate the opportunity gap that exists in our country—a gap that Year Up is determined and positioned to close. Year Up achieves its mission through three interconnected strategies: direct service for students and alumni, empowering others to serve and support young adults, and changing systems that perpetuate the Opportunity Divide. Year Up's intensive training program utilizes a high expectations, high support model where students learn in-demand technical and professional skills and apply them during a corporate internship. Year Up has served more than 30,000 young adults across 25 cities since its founding in 2000 and has been voted one of the "Best Non-Profits to Work For" by The NonProfit Times. To learn more, visit www.yearup.org.

EDITORIAL CREDIT: Coach

SOCIAL MEDIA: @Coach; #CoachNY; #DreamItReal

CONTACT:
Amanda Peña, Senior Director, Global PR & Brand Communications
212 594 1850 ext. 101854 / [email protected]

SOURCE Coach, Inc.

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