Academic Innovations / Get Focused Stay Focused!

WHAT'S INSIDE

Breaking Barriers Grant
Wine Tasting Fundraiser
What We've Been Doing

Breaking Barriers to Employment Grant

In the spring, the Get Focused, Stay Focused nonprofit was awarded a grant as part of a collaborative through the California Workforce Development Board. The Breaking Barriers to Employment grant, which runs through the end of June 2024, will use the career curriculum in the Central Valley for adult students with multiple barriers to employment, including English Language Learners. The nonprofit is acting as the fiscal agent and will also provide diversity, equity, and inclusion training for the teachers of the curriculum, as well as coordinating a Labor Market Summit for the participating adult schools and their local K12 partners.

The students will choose a priority career area and then receive skills training in allied health; business, finance & entrepreneurship; manufacturing; or transportation & logistics. These sectors have the largest regional supply gap in this region, with a collective shortage of nearly 47,000 workers. We are excited to have this opportunity to use the curriculum and the nonprofit's services to help adults enter the workforce in jobs with living wages!

Thousand Oaks Wine Tasting Fundraiser

On June 17th, 2023, the Get Focused, Stay Focused nonprofit held its first wine tasting fundraiser event. The event was limited to a maximum of 20 attendees, and we were thrilled that a combination of registration fees, the raffle and silent auction, wine sales, and donations brought our fundraising total to just over $1,700!

Big thanks to Board members Dr. Irma Breakfield and Jesse Hernandez for providing tables, chairs, sun umbrellas, charcuterie boards, and many of the donated items.

If you missed this fun event, please consider signing up for our upcoming Santa Barbara event on Saturday, September 23rd from 1:00–3:00 PM.

What the GFSF Nonprofit Has Been Doing

One of the main areas of focus for the nonprofit is to bring in grant funding to support schools implementing the Career Choices and Changes curriculum series. The Executive Director and a part-time grant writer create grant proposals for foundations to bring wrap-around support services in geographic areas where we have partner schools.

For the 2023–2024 school year, the nonprofit has received funding as follows:

$10,000 from the Williams-Corbett Foundation to provide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training and a Labor Market Summit in Santa Barbara county
$5,000 from the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Foundation for professional development at summer/winter GFSF conferences for teachers/counselors/administrators in the Santa Barbara area
$10,000 from the Fansler Foundation to provide a Labor Market Summit in the Central Valley of California, and to support two middle schools in Fresno & Tulare counties implementing the middle school “Building a Bridge to Your Future” curriculum
$5,000 from the Henry W. Bull Foundation to provide professional learning community Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training and a Labor Market Summit in Arizona
$2,000 from The Charitable Foundation (Berkshire Hathaway) to provide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training and a Labor Market Summit in Santa Barbara county
$500 from Walmart in Lompoc to support our work in local schools

The GFSF nonprofit is extremely grateful for the support of its partner foundations in providing high quality career education to students and support for teachers of the curriculum.