Women's Foundation of California Announces $500,000 in Grants for New Bridge to Living Wage Initiative

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 21, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Women's Foundation of California (www.womensfoundca.org) today announced it is awarding grants totaling $500,000 to six community-based organizations working to increase employment and career advancement opportunities for low-income women within the healthcare sector.

The grants are part of the Foundation's Bridge to Living Wage initiative, a strategic effort to ensure economic security for low-income women and families in California. The Bridge to Living Wage initiative invests in programs and services that develop pathways to careers providing family sustaining wages, with a specific focus on the health care sector. Moving forward, the initiative will focus on advancing policy and systems change to increase wages and improve work place benefits and working conditions of low-skilled jobs in the healthcare sector and beyond.

"Working women and families in California are having a hard time making ends meet," said Surina Khan, CEO of the Women's Foundation of California. "We have to step it up to ensure economic security for all women. Through the Bridge to Living Wage initiative, more women in California will have opportunities to transition from unemployment or low-wage jobs into positions and careers that pay enough to adequately support their families."

The demand for additional workers in the healthcare sector, already one of the largest employers in California, is expected to surge in the coming years. The sector offers many low-barrier-to-entry employment opportunities; defined career pathways; multiple occupations requiring less than a four-year degree; and, in many middle-skill jobs, family-sustaining wages.

Grant recipients are El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center in San Bernardino; Goodwill Serving the People of Southern Los Angeles County, based in Long Beach; In-Home Supportive Services Consortium serving San Mateo and San Francisco; Mixteco/Indígena Community Organizing Project in Ventura; Taller San Jose; and Visión Y Compromiso, based in Los Angeles and serving communities statewide. Learn more about each organization.

The Bridge to Living Wage initiative is funded in partnership with the Walmart Foundation and the Wells Fargo Foundation.

About the Women's Foundation of California:

The Women's Foundation of California is a publicly supported grant making foundation that invests in women as a key strategy for creating a California where all communities are economically secure and can thrive. Since 1979, the Foundation has awarded more than $35 million to 1,200 community-based organizations in each region of the state. www.womensfoundca.org.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/womens-foundation-of-california-announces-500000-in-grants-for-new-bridge-to-living-wage-initiative-559133972.html

SOURCE Women's Foundation of California

Related Links

http://www.womensfoundca.org/