UPS delivers grant funds to support group’s work
Louisville, Ky. (Oct. 23, 2014) – After months of exploration and creative problem-solving, the 2014 Bingham Fellows launched three initiatives designed to invest in West Louisville’s “Path to Prosperity:” Early Education 40210, We Hire Together and OneWest.
The 44 community leaders who make up the class presented their work to an audience of more than 100 business and community leaders on Thursday, Oct. 23 at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage. Following their presentations, grant funds of $10,000 from The UPS Foundation, the charitable arm of UPS, were designated to help launch the OneWest project.
West Louisville poses a unique blend of assets and challenges. While home to 60,000 of the city’s residents and encompassing several historical neighborhoods, the area lags behind the rest of the city in median household income, education attainment and home ownership.
Since January 2014, the Bingham Fellows class members have gathered to study the issues and assets of West Louisville, learn from best practices and tap into their imagination and talent to develop projects designed to create social change. Buoyed by a groundswell of interest from Louisville’s top corporations, universities, foundations and civic leaders, the class worked to identify and find ways to build on West Louisville’s strengths, hoping to serve as catalysts for neighborhood transformation. The class was also fortunate to tap into grant funds from The UPS Foundation to support their work.
Knowing that successful community transformation spans from cradle to career, the Bingham Fellows narrowed their focus to projects which address three key elements of a thriving community: early childhood education, employment and the built environment. Their projects include:
- Early Education 40210, place-based effort to increase early childhood education with a goal of improving the kindergarten readiness of children residing in the 40210 ZIP code.
- We Hire Together is developing a network of community influencers to help West Louisville residents find jobs, access job training and, over time, raise household incomes in West Louisville.
- OneWest (onewest.org), a non-profit corporation that will establish new pathways to public and private capital in an effort to stimulate economic development and revitalization in West Louisville’s built environment.
For further project details, visit http://www.leadershiplouisville.org/bingham-fellows/bingham-fellows-2014-outcomes/
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