Creating a National Model: SkillWorks Boston and The National Fund for Workforce Solutions
In 2003, SPI's founder, Angel Bermudez, spearheaded a Boston-based workforce development initiative, called SkillWorks. In just a few years, the initiative raised over $7 million to invest in partnerships between local employers, training programs, and job seekers. The success of SkillWorks was so great that it inspired the Ford Foundation, the Knight Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Hitachi Foundation, the U.S. Department of Labor, and others to set up a $50 million national fund to undertake SkillWorks-like activities in cities across the country. Thus, in 2007, The National Fund for Workforce Solutions was created. SkillWorks established itself as the benchmark for how other workforce development initiatives are measured in terms of dollars raised, funds leveraged, employers engaged and served, and impact made in the lives on individuals. The model has been implemented in over 30 cities across the country.