73,879 Broward residents or 7.3 percent of the Broward workforce are currently unemployed
Submitted by Kirk Englehardt
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL — (January 12, 2020)– Community Foundation of Broward (CFB) has announced a $1 million dollar BE BOLD Prize to get Broward County residents back to work within the next two years. The BE BOLD Prize encourages new ways of thinking that move beyond traditional workforce development programs and embrace an innovative idea and solution for transformative community impact.
Due to economic fallout from COVID-19, Broward’s unemployment rate stood at 7.3 percent in November 2020, representing 73,879 unemployed Broward residents, according to the latest data released by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. That is more than double the County’s 2.7 percent unemployment rate from November 2019. Nationally, the U.S. economy lost 140,000 jobs during the month of December, according to a federal jobs report issued Friday morning. Florida’s and Broward County’s December 2020 unemployment statistics will be released at 10 a.m. on Friday, January 22.
Workers in leisure and hospitality have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, with a loss of 187,500 jobs statewide, or 14.9 percent, according to the state report. Unemployment among African Americans in Broward has historically been higher than unemployment among the general population.
“Our goal is to tackle COVID-19 job losses in Broward County and their amplified impact on com-munities of color,” said Sheri Brown, Community Foundation of Broward Vice President of Community Impact. “We want to help affected Broward County residents to gain stable employment within the next two years.”
The $1 million BE BOLD Prize grant is open to nonprofit, government, and for-profit entities. Collaboration among organizations is encouraged and employer involvement is a critical element. Preference will be given to organizations located in Broward County; organizations outside of Broward may also apply as long as they can demonstrate high-quality pro-grams and direct impact on employment of Broward County residents.
Community Foundation of Broward has posted a BE BOLD Prize request for proposals with application details at https://cfbroward.link/Be-BOLD-Prize. The RFP notes specific objectives, including employment for a significant portion of currently unemployed Broward residents, a focus on employment for people of color and creation of a unique or scalable idea which is sustainable beyond the 2-year time period of the grant. The challenge is to create new initiatives or scale up proven initiatives.
Applications are due no later than Friday, April 9 at 11:59 p.m. with announcement of the winner by the end of May.
