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Peoria, IL, March 16, 2022 - The Community Foundation of Central Illinois (CFCI) announced the selection of the 2022 Community Works grant recipients. The Community Works grant was program was established in 2021 with the generous estate gift from Bob Gilmore, retired president of Caterpillar, Inc. With this gift, CFCI has established the Gilmore Fund, which will provide annual grants in perpetuity to organizations and programs which will maintain and enhance culture, improve society, and promote job creation and retention in the central Illinois area, including the Community Works grant.
The proposals submitted by Tri-County Urban League for their "League as a Lab" program and the Minority Business Development Center for their "IT Workforce Development"program will each be awarded $25,000 to help create and retain jobs in central Illinois.
"These funds will allow the Minority Business Development Center the ability to provide community members with training in 21st century technologies and will open up a new world of greater than livable wage employment opportunities," says Denise Moore, Founder and CEO of the Minority Business Development Center.
"We are honored to be an inaugural grantee for the 2022 Community Works grant. This will help us to engage the community with our League as the Lab program," says Dawn Harris Jeffries, Ph.D, President and CEO of the Tri-County Urban League.
“We’re proud to put these resources to use through the Community Works grant program in hopes of driving systematic, long-term change,” says Mark Roberts, CFCI President and CEO. “The Tri-County Urban League and the Minority Business Development Center have developed programs that emphasize job creation and retention, while also using organizational collaboration to work towards eliminating some of the silos throughout our community. We look forward to seeing the change brought forth by both programs.”
For more information please call 309-674-8730, email carley@communityfoundationci.org or visit communityfoundationci.org.
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