{"id":12208,"date":"2015-03-18T17:11:03","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T21:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/?p=12208"},"modified":"2015-03-18T17:11:03","modified_gmt":"2015-03-18T21:11:03","slug":"futuremakers-coalition-forms-goal-to-increase-regions-higher-education-completion-to-40-percent-by-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/2015\/03\/18\/futuremakers-coalition-forms-goal-to-increase-regions-higher-education-completion-to-40-percent-by-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"FutureMakers Coalition forms; Goal to increase region\u2019s higher education completion to 40 percent by 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sarah Owen & John Gamba<\/p>\n

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Dawn-Marie Driscoll, Mark Lewis, Dennie Hamilton & Carolyn Conant<\/p>\n

FORT MYERS, Fla. (March 18, 2015) \u2013\u00a0More than 80 business, government, education, workforce and economic development leaders recently joined together to launch a regional cohort, FutureMakers Coalition.<\/p>\n

The goal of the FutureMakers Coalition is to increase the number of people in Southwest Florida with high-quality degrees, certificates, and other credentials to 40 percent by the year 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently 27 percent of the workforce in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Glades and Hendry counties has some sort of post-secondary degree,\u201d said Sarah Owen, president and CEO of the Southwest Florida Community Foundation<\/a>, the Coalition\u2019s backbone organization. \u201cWith targeted funding, legislation and uniting groups around the same goal, we expect to be able to meet this milestone by 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FutureMakers Coalition was born out of a regional initiative last year, which was supported by a team of more than a dozen stakeholders focusing on strengthening Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Glades and Hendry counties. FutureMakers took an active role in aiding high-school seniors through one-on-one and group mentoring,\u00a0Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) workshops and support, and career coaching.<\/p>\n

After one year, the work of FutureMakers was recognized by Lumina Foundation, an independent, private foundation committed to increasing the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees, certificates and other credentials to 60 percent by 2025. The Southwest Florida Community Foundation will serve as the coordinator for regional participation, and the FutureMakers Coalition will benefit from Lumina\u2019s collaborative approach that connects Southwest Florida to renowned national thought-leadership organizations and provides technical and planning assistance, data tools and flexible funding as attainment plans are customized. Lumina has a network of 75 cities that make up Lumina\u2019s Community Partnership for Attainment network. The network includes Southwest Florida and is now closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just degrees that we will focus on but \u2018industry-recognized certifications\u2019 that can help people land better jobs and are key to economic and workforce development,\u201d Owen added. \u201cHigher education can lead to better jobs and a higher quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

As leaders, conveners, grant makers and concierges of philanthropy, the Southwest Florida Community Foundation is a foundation built on community leadership with an inspired history of fostering regional change for the common good in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades counties. The Community Foundation, founded in 1976, connects donors and their philanthropic aspirations with evolving community needs. With assets of more than $80 million, the Community Foundation has provided more than $60 million in grants and scholarships to the communities it serves. Last year, the Foundation granted more than $2.8 million to nonprofit organizations supporting education, animal welfare, arts, healthcare and human services. The Foundation granted $782,000 in nonprofit grants including more than $400,000 in regional community impact grants and additional $450,000 in scholarship grants.<\/p>\n

For more information about the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, call 239-274-5900 or visit\u00a0www.floridacommunity.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Tyler Sanders & Al Smith<\/p>\n

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Susan McManus & Joy Mahler<\/p>\n

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Roger Desjarlais, Alan Mandel & Larry Kiker<\/p>\n

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Joe Mazurkiewicz & Cindy Banyai<\/p>\n

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Christine Davlin<\/p>\n

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Chejai Onumbu<\/p>\n

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Roger Desjarlais & Alan Mandel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Owen & John Gamba Dawn-Marie Driscoll, Mark Lewis, Dennie Hamilton & Carolyn Conant FORT MYERS, Fla. (March 18, 2015) \u2013\u00a0More than 80 business, government, education, workforce and economic development…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1],"tags":[4191,4192,4193,475,3459,59,16,17,4194,1046,4195,716,590,796,4196,4197,1047,2348,2882,366,2740,4198,2804,19,2311,21,4199,1590],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12208"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}