By creating local opportunity, communities are provided with sufficient jobs, education, and services that lead to business growth, affordable services, and a meaningful life.
Scott and a close friend founded a non-profit foundation to help disadvantaged children find meaningful, good-paying jobs after graduating from high school. In Virginia, approximately 50% of young people do not get additional training during or after high school graduation. Meanwhile, good-paying jobs requiring post-high school education and training are going unfilled by the thousands Virginia. Rural communities and diverse populations have far fewer adults with vocational skills, technical skills, or college educations than urban areas – a gap that is growing each year. This lack of an educated workforce leads to slow or negative economic growth in nearly all non-urban communities.
OUR GOAL: EVERY STUDENT ACHIEVES VOCATIONAL, TECHNICAL, OR PROFESSIONAL TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT.
We engage with students throughout middle school and high school and a career pathway is prepared for achieving a job with a vocational skill, a technical certification or degree, or an admission to a professional degree program at a local university. It only makes sense to educate local youth for good wage jobs, to work and live in the community they grew up in.
In 2020, we established the program, and we are now working with several local school systems to identify students who fit our profile and have the need to achieve this training and employment.
Sharon and Scott are founding members of the Loudoun Community Cabinet, a giving circle that seeks to bring innovation, leverage, and resources to systemic human services gaps in Loudoun County. Initial goals include:
As Loudoun County has experienced rapid growth, the local government has also experienced the consequences of a larger population, requiring additional resources and services. County budgets are unable to provide all that is needed. Additionally, as the community has identified needs, more nonprofit organizations have been established with good intentions to address those needs, but often with minimal executive experience to guide their success. As a result, critical gaps in human services have emerged that allow members of our community to fall between the cracks.
The Loudoun Community Cabinet is a small group of philanthropists who recognize the value of pooling their resources to effect positive change in their community. Together, they are building a pool of grantmaking resources to:
Loudoun Community Cabinet members serve as ambassadors and successful community influencers to invite outcome-based alliances with nonprofit agencies, Loudoun County government, businesses, and other philanthropies.
Take a look at recent grants that the Cabinet awarded here.
