2.19.2008 - 02:15pm ET

(CSRwire) WASHINGTON, DC - February 19, 2008 – Six projects working to help low-income adults achieve greater success in higher education and, ultimately, the workforce have been selected to participate in a three-year demonstration designed to support, strengthen and evaluate their efforts.

Funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and managed by the Aspen Institute's Workforce Strategies Initiative (WSI), the demonstration will track six partnerships involving community colleges with a track record of working with nonprofits in their community on ways to better serve low-income working adult students. The demonstration is based on the idea that effective workforce training programs reflect employers' needs and job opportunities in the community, and that a range of academic and nonacademic supports are needed to help disadvantaged adults achieve greater success.

The partnerships were selected for the demonstration from approximately 100 national applicants. Each partnership will receive $100,000 each year of the demonstration to finance program operations and some evaluation activities. The Aspen Institute's research team will conduct an evaluation that looks at models of collaboration, program features, costs and outcomes for the students.

The six projects are:

Location: Seattle, Wash.

Partners: Northern Virginia Family Service and Northern Virginia Community College

Additional information about the demonstration and the participating projects is available at: http://www.aspenwsi.org/WSIwork-HigherEd.asp.

WSI (www.aspenwsi.org), a program of the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C., identifies and advances strategies that help low-income Americans gain ground in today’s labor market. It engages in applied research, facilitates dialogue, shares new ideas and disseminates research findings.

The Aspen Institute, founded in 1950, is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering enlightened leadership and open-minded dialogue. Through seminars, policy programs, conferences and leadership development initiatives, the Institute and its international partners seek to promote nonpartisan inquiry and an appreciation for timeless values. The Institute is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has campuses in Aspen, Colorado, and on the Wye River on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Its international network includes partner Aspen Institutes in Berlin, Rome, Lyon, Tokyo, New Delhi, and Bucharest, and leadership programs in Africa, Central America and India.

The Mott Foundation, established in Flint, Mich. in 1926, is a private philanthropy committed to supporting projects that promote a just, equitable and sustainable society. It supports nonprofit programs throughout the U.S. and, on a limited geographic basis, internationally. Grantmaking is focused on four programs: Civil Society, Environment, Flint Area and Pathways out of Poverty (www.mott.org).

For more information please contact:

Maureen Conway, Director, Workforce Strategies Initiative
The Aspen Institute
202-736-2502
www.aspeninstitute.org

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