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Symphony Workforce
72 Ginger Woods Road Valley, NE 68604
https://symphonyworkforce.org and https://findthewhy.org
https://www.facebook.com/gofindthewhy https://twitter.com/gofindthewhy https://www.instagram.com/gofindthewhy
Mr. Todd Smith
Chief Executive Officer
todd@symphonyworkforce.org
+1 (402) 850-8266
Yes
Todd Smith, Program Champion For more than two decades, Todd has been an influential leader in the business and education technology space. His collective impact work with Pitsco Education and Lego Education have afforded him a deep understanding of the K-12 education space and current needs of both industry and the 14 - 18-year-old student. He will be ensuring the proper resources are available to meet the Find the Why! Omaha program objectives and deliverables. John Batcher, Program Lead John has held leadership positions in both the nonprofit and commercial sectors. He has led major B2C program initiatives for a number of organizations and understands the complexities of successfully engaging large groups of people with online platforms. He holds a Masters in Business Administration and Executive Management Program Certification in Strategy and Innovation. Two Identified Educational Veterans, Program Coordinators Each of these individuals brings nearly 20 years of secondary education experience focused substantially on entrepreneurship and career pathways. As the Program Coordinators they are prepared to empower other academic peers and young people as a well-known educational leader in the greater Omaha area. Both people hold a Nebraska 7-12 Business Education Certificate. Stephanie Dexter, Project Leader Stephanie has been a technical project and program leader following her successful career in software development. She is passionate about giving young people the tools and resources they need to pursue their educational goals and career aspirations. Kimberly Roth, Technical Program Lead Kimberly spent 15 years in media and production roles before launching her successful career in technology and web development. She handles all technical aspects of the Find the Why! platform, in addition to leading technical customer support. Erik Miller, Brand Engagement Erik leads all brand management and design efforts. His passion for helping young people through Find the Why! stems from years of experience in youth branding and design during his time as Founder of Storyhook Design. Troy Bigalow, Technical Development Director Troy has spent over 20 years as a developer leading major efforts for NFL related projects and now quarterbacks the Find the Why! technical development team efforts. Laura Jenkins, Client Services & Support Laura has specialized in client services and support for nearly two decades and loves people and the work Find the Why! is doing with amazing students across the nation. Merritt Nelson, Survey & Data Analytics As a former director of student recruiting with a major postsecondary institution, Merritt brings keen insights to our efforts to better develop our data analytics and student driven data efforts. Providing young people with better data to make better decisions is at the heart of Merritt’s efforts.
Symphony Workforce is guided by the foundation board consisting of eight representatives from the business and philanthropic community. Under the Foundation Board is CEO Todd Smith and COO John Batcher. Todd Smith oversees brand services, data analytics, and client and donor relations. John Batcher oversees information technology, technical program management, accounting, finance, and client services and support. The organizational chart is attached.
Find the Why! is a proven example of successful innovation in the workforce development arena. Over the last three years, Find the Why! has built a following of thousands of young people across the nation. We have a mature technical platform and growing user base which gives this program a stable foundation and should instill confidence in our ability to generate the positive outcomes this grant deserves and demands. Our organic growth started in Nebraska and is testimony to the engaging nature of our mobile platform. We meet young people on their mobile devices where they spend the large majority of their thumb-dominated daily life with authentic opportunities to engage in career discovery and exploration. We have built a nationwide following that has now expanded beyond our borders to include young people from Europe, South America, and Australia. This wide following is proof of our commitment to young people and to the value we create for young people and corporations alike. By adhering to a student-driven approach, our major accomplishments include the aforementioned growth and momentum. Along with a sustainable, scalable user experience we have also built robust proprietary data collection tools and assessments. This data is protected at the individual participant level for their sole use and aggregated for sharing among our philanthropic partners and sponsor companies more broadly. Through #ftwOmaha! we will leverage our proven platform and data for the benefit of those most directly impacted by the pandemic, transforming lives and breaking generational poverty by giving young people opportunities they would not otherwise have. Other major accomplishments include approval from Nebraska’s CTE department for the use of the Find the Why! platform in Nebraska classrooms as noted by Dr. Katie Graham, Director of Nebraska CTE “Symphony Workforce’s focus on student-driven discovery of career opportunities is a great representation of career development in action. Find The Why! aligns with Nebraska’s high-quality Career and Technical Education programs and provides students the opportunity to engage with Nebraska businesses and apply classroom learning to real-world workplace problems.” Dr. Graham also noted that the ftw! platform "Incents students to engage their career discovery and exploration process and aligns with the student engagement state CTE standards and Workplace Experience Continuum.”
Find the Why!
12520587.0
7616217.0
Service/program
Symphony Workforce will engage young people in grades 6-12, as well as justice involved individuals preparing for reentry, in meaningful career discovery and exploration through our proprietary Find the Why! virtual mobile app. Find the Why! is a mature mobile career and workforce development app offering an engaging, gamified user experience to young people across the nation. Focusing on individuals in the designated QCT area, we will help those young people who have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This funding request of $7,616,217 over the duration of the grant will allow Symphony Workforce to serve approximately 25,000 unique students annually in grades 6-12 in the identified QCT areas. Upon funding, Symphony Workforce Foundation will provide in-kind funding for the 11,400 10th - 12th grade students from the QCT areas to participate alongside the grant funded 13,700 6th - 9th grade group. In total, there will be approximately 25,000 school age students within the identified QCT areas impacted by the ftwOmaha! program on an annual basis. Also, we have been asked to provide for the inclusion of 2,100 non-violent offenders confined in any of the state's 9 correctional facilities as part of an innovative new re-entry strategy. Student and re-entry populations, while very different, both experienced disproportionately negative impacts of COVID-19. Workforce readiness, particularly in historically disadvantaged communities, is a key economic recovery strategy identified by the federal government in the guidance related to utilization of the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds.
Major milestones include: o Q3 2023 Program launch when funding received o Challenge Series during 2023 totaling 102 days of engagement with quarterly assessments/audit documents filed as required by grant. o Challenge Series during 2024 totaling 102 days of engagement with quarterly assessments/audit documents filed as required by grant. o Challenge Series during 2025 totaling 102 days of engagement with quarterly assessments/audit documents filed as required by grant. o Q3 2025 final fund allocation report with suggestions for private public partnerships to expand the success of the program o Q4 2026 completion of the grant funded program and capstone longitudinal evaluation
0.7
Fundamental Change (i.e., a proposal that will continue to elevate North or South Omaha's presence and perception within the region, significantly improving the lives of area residents through physical development) Long-Lasting Economic Growth (i.e., a proposal that will foster gainful employment opportunities and financial investment in the area, leading to the creation of generational wealth and widespread economic vitality in North and South Omaha) Transformational (i.e., a proposal that will help energize, recharge, or spur significant and favorable advancements in North or South Omaha's function or appearance)
Policy (i.e., develop or improve context-sensitive education, finance, health, training, zoning, etc.) Quality of Life (i.e., create or enhance natural spaces, mixed uses, parks, safety, etc.) Sustainable Community (i.e., create or enhance housing, services, education, civic uses, recreation, etc.)
Find the Why! Omaha (#ftwOmaha!) empowers young people to discover and explore careers by solving real business problems from real companies via our Find the Why! mobile app. Find the Why! has quickly become the modern, engaging, and highly relevant way young people are choosing to engage the world of work in their thumb-dominated mobile environment. Over the last three years, thousands of young people have engaged in Find the Why! with high rates of success as measured by returning users, company tour offers, internship and apprenticeship offers, job offers, and user success stories. Focusing on the QCT areas of the Omaha Metro, #ftwOmaha! will serve as an influential, virtual way to positively engage and advance young people disproportionately adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in both their short term re-engagement and long term economic success. Key focus areas include: 1. Engaging 6th - 9th grade students in the designated QCT areas (13,741 OPS students). 2. Engaging 10th - 12th grade students in the designated QCT areas (11,454 students). Note: Symphony Workforce Foundation will fund the inclusion of the 10th - 12th grade OPS students. This in-kind commitment will be ongoing for the duration of the project. 3. Engaging incarcerated non-violent offenders in Nebraska preparing for re-entry (2,100 people). #ftwOmaha! builds a sustainable community serving as an inclusive, engaging way for young people to prepare for a meaningful career regardless of socioeconomic status, geographic location, or cultural background. This program will dismantle generational poverty by providing relevant opportunities for young people to achieve meaningful high-wage, high-demand and high-skilled careers within the communities in which they grew up. In doing so, these young people build wealth in the form of both economic and social capital which raises the tide for their entire community and for generations to come. In addition, #ftwOmaha! provides a unique opportunity for the combination of context-sensitive education and real world learning in an “always on” mobile format young people expect as part of their daily lives. #ftwOmaha! will connect education to world-of-work experiences with the momentum and experience to foster continued success. This education-to-work connection allows young people to see the value of education as it relates to their future career aspirations. It also helps young people find their “best fit” into academy programs being implemented in Omaha Public School high schools and in other QCT area schools. This highly contextual experiential learning component is currently absent from educational offerings and has been proven to provide a high degree of student engagement with benefits extending well beyond the classroom. The proven viability and long-term sustainability of Find the Why! serves as a stable foundation for successful, ongoing transformational change within the identified QCT areas. Through the #ftwOmaha! program individuals in the QCT areas will realize an improved quality of life, improved education to workforce attainment, reduced crime and incarceration rates, a direct path to home and property ownership, and the betterment of their community’s overall standard of living. Primary Partners: Formal partnerships - Symphony Workforce has formalized relationships with local and regional nonprofits and associations already operating in the QCT areas including: Partnership 4 Kids, JAG-Nebraska, Heartland Workforce Solutions, Empowerment Network & Co., University of Nebraska - Omaha, Creighton University, Bellevue University, Project Reset, and Tools among others in support of Omaha’s youth. Additionally, we have formal relationships with several K-12 institutions within the QCT areas across the state including: OPS, Bellevue Public Schools, Grand Island Public Schools, Westside Community Schools, Chadron Public Schools, Battle Creek Public Schools, Marian, Gross Catholic, among others.
#ftwOmaha! addresses a substantial number of the findings from the Visioning Workshops held in North and South Omaha. Foremost, as a virtual, mobile platform, #ftwOmaha! solves the persistent problem of equitable access to transformational experiences for young people who may not have readily available transportation, reliable wired internet access, or face physical infrastructure limitations of such programs in their immediate neighborhood. The proposed program eliminates a significant amount of these barriers to meaningful participation in career discovery and exploration. Additionally, our program removes barriers that stand between young people and the companies who are seeking to recruit, train, and employ them in high-potential, high-wage, high-demand career fields. Ultimately, these opportunities result in young people remaining in the communities they were born and raised in. By removing these impediments and creating access for companies and future workers alike, we aim to substantially reduce unemployment rates and persistent, generational poverty in both North and South Omaha QCT areas. The fundamental change which stems from creating equitable access will further bolster these communities by reducing the outmigration of talent or “brain drain” so often associated with individuals who find economic success in disadvantaged areas. Symphony Workforce leverages the soaring smartphone engagement and reliance this generation of 6th -12th graders developed over the past 2.5 years of Covid. Find the Why! has leveraged this Covid-driven dependence as the vehicle for transformative generational change and lasting economic impact through workforce exploration. Whether a young person is best suited to pursue 2 or 4-year postsecondary education or take a more immediate path to a high-wage, high-demand career, the formal partnerships with UNO, Bellevue University, and Creighton University that we bring to #ftwOmaha! ensures the availability of meaningful pathways after high school. In light of this fact, Nebraska's Department of Education's Career and Technical Education has agreed Find the Why! is the great equalizer in workforce development. Beyond the Vision Workshop findings, it should be noted that #ftwOmaha! can be readily and rapidly scaled to encompass young people in other QCT areas across the state. This scalability is not situationally dependent and truly transforms workforce development, career exploration, and changes whole economic ecosystems. #ftwOmaha! is the win-win-win for businesses, young people, and communities Omaha has been searching for. Moreover, #ftwOmaha! could also include the 2,100 inmates that are rotating out of the Nebraska prison system each year through reentry programs. During the pandemic, crime increased in disproportionately impacted communities. Historically, most petty crime is a response to poverty, lack of opportunity, and a lack of pro-social support. Non-violent offenders are rarely career criminals and if they can be connected to, and supported by the right mentors/opportunities, they have a high probability of successful reentry. Reentry is a process that intentionally prepares the incarcerated and their families for return to the community. Engagement with Find the Why! through this #ftwOmaha! program prior to discharge will strengthen the connection between incarcerated individuals and their family, home, and community. Establishing connections to stable, high-wage, high-demand employment and housing are the two most important factors in preparing for successful reentry.
#ftwOmaha! is an innovative solution uniquely positioned to impact the recorded concerns from the North and South Omaha Community meetings. Employment and Underemployment Access matters. It is not a mystery that lower graduation rates translate to underemployment or unemployment which, in turn, is often followed by higher crime rates and higher incarceration rates. This cycle is self-perpetuating and creates generational hardship and poverty. #ftwOmaha! confronts the root cause of this cycle by providing students with mobile access to real opportunities to explore real careers with real companies giving young people real hope of meaningful employment. The best way to prevent underemployment or unemployment is to provide access to careers that fit. Youth With the ability to engage a collective mass of young people inside a given QCT area, sheer scale begins to drive positive peer pressure and encourage engagement. As a virtual, mobile platform, Find the Why! enjoys many benefits of such positive peer pressure. Young people are very familiar with this phenomenon due in large part to the rise of social media. Young people are the magnets that draw in their peers to our highly accessible platform. By engaging their peers young people are unknowingly the catalyst for economic growth that begins with career engagement and discovery and results in recruitment into HWHD employment. Transportation Gone are the barriers of having to travel to a building as the only way to explore, learn or be inspired with the implementation of #ftwOmaha!. Our virtual program works regardless of geographic or transportation related limitations. Child Care Youth.gov tells us that by age 22, only half of all teen mothers earn a high school diploma and 30% have earned a GED. Contrast that with young women who are not teen mothers achieving a 90% high school graduation rate. Subsequently, the likelihood of generational poverty for this subset of young people is multiplied exponentially. Find the Why! reopens the door to meaningful career discovery and exploration as teen parents now have access to a myriad of companies who can offer them employment despite their early parenthood. Young parents can fit career and self-discovery into their busy lives without being forced to neglect their parental roles by leaving their home to pursue brick and mortar based career exploration. Industry/Workforce Symphony Workforce has many clients who are seeking to diversify their workforce. One of our fastest growing requests from employers is for high school graduates who want to go directly to work or community college students who want to work up to 30 hours in an apprenticeship model. Symphony Workforce gives young people transparency regarding a company's culture, a realistic picture of company benefits, and career and continuing education pathways prior to asking them to make a long-term career or educational commitment. Training Symphony Workforce has listened to students and industry and understands the pressure of postsecondary debt. Find the Why! creates awareness and opportunities for young people to be recruited into high wage high demand careers that do not require a postsecondary degree. Companies today have their own training and certification programs which directly correlate to skills needed to improve at work, promotions, and the ability to earn higher wages. Symphony allows for transformational self-awareness and improved ability to thrive from honest feedback based on data from multiple assessments and proprietary algorithms found within our platform. Find the Why! experiences place the student in the position of owner and creator. If what they create has commercial value, we connect them with institutions or agencies that can guide their long-term growth. We allow mentors from nonprofits and community groups to invest their time over our standard 7-day Challenges, providing short feedback when called upon by student teams.
Improving the economy starts with empowering people with access to participate in the marketplace. Often starting with basic employment, too many of North and South Omaha’s poorest residents are excluded from participating in the current job market. Among the reasons these individuals are precluded are a lack of training, low “soft” job skills, and low educational attainment. North and South Omaha’s pandemic unemployment rate over the last 18 months illustrates a bleak outlook as the rate has been, and continues to be, consistently higher even beyond the Covid pandemic. In response, #ftwOmaha! will provide over 25,000 young people experiential learning and career development opportunities up to six times each year. Through our proprietary in-platform personal assessments coupled with an auto generated personalized digital resume, Find the Why! becomes a game changer in providing opportunities for short, experiential learning, exercising and improving soft skills, and documenting both with quantitative, measurable outputs in the form of a digital resume. Secondarily, companies sponsoring challenges on the Find the Why! platform will enjoy reduced costs for employee acquisition and retention. According to the Nebraska Department of Labor, on May 22, 2022 there were 97,013 open nonfarm positions. As of April 2022, the average hourly earnings for all private employees (not seasonally adjusted) was $29.58. By 2026 our data will reveal a consistent pipeline of the 24,000 young people from this QCT area moving into high wage high demand high skilled internships, apprenticeship, jobs or paid postsecondary experiences. Through virtual and onsite internships and apprenticeships, sponsor companies will have the ability to vet and recruit young people from the QCT areas that best fits their needs and culture. It should be noted that there is a high correlation between internships and hiring with an intern conversion rate of 64 percent according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. ftwOmaha! is designed to fill the workforce funnel with interns from the identified QCT areas knowing that a large majority of them will engage in gainful employment opportunities. Current employee acquisition costs average between $3,500 to $5,500 per new hire with the staggering cost of replacing an employee nearing two times the employee’s annual salary. Given tight labor market conditions and low unemployment, now more than ever employers must retain their employees. Increased retention starts with finding the right fit which Find the Why! empowers creating a win-win for both future employees and employers alike. As it relates to justice involved individuals, Nebraska’s H3.NE.gov website notes that an apprenticeship with a diploma or equivalent can earn on average: ● Plumber - $55,155 ● Electrician - $49,386 ● Heavy Machine or Truck Driver - $44,718 This means that for the state of Nebraska and its incarcerated population, instead of paying $35,950 to house an inmate, upon reentry, a former inmate can be a net annual benefit to the state, their community, and family of approximately $80,000 dollars. This cycle of incarceration, once broken, represents a significant step toward economic independence and an end to generational poverty. Internally, Symphony Workforce will create 3-5 full and part-time positions within our organization in support of this program. These would include entry to mid-level positions directly related to serving the young people, educators, and nonprofit leaders in the QCT areas identified. Positions would likely start at $22 to $28/hour with a salaried equivalent and provide an immediate and ongoing opportunity for employment.
Companies sponsoring challenges on the Find the Why! platform will enjoy reduced costs for employee acquisition and retention. According to the Nebraska Department of Labor, on May 22, 2022 there were 97,013 open nonfarm positions. As of April 2022, the average hourly earnings for all private employees (not seasonally adjusted) was $29.58. By 2026 our data will reveal a consistent pipeline of the 25,000 young people from this QCT area moving into high wage high demand high skilled internships, apprenticeship, jobs or paid postsecondary experiences. Through virtual and onsite internships and apprenticeships, sponsor companies will have the ability to vet and recruit young people from the QCT areas that best fits their needs and culture. It should be noted that there is a high correlation between internships and hiring with an intern conversion rate of 64 percent according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. ftwOmaha! is designed to fill the workforce funnel with interns from the identified QCT areas knowing that a large majority of them will engage in gainful employment opportunities. Current employee acquisition costs average between $3,500 to $5,500 per new hire with the staggering cost of replacing an employee nearing two times the employee’s annual salary. Given tight labor market conditions and low unemployment, now more than ever employers must retain their employees. Increased retention starts with finding the right fit which Find the Why! empowers creating a win-win for both future employees and employers alike.
Central to the #ftwOmaha! project is the idea that young people must be empowered to own their future with their current effort. Find the Why! provides access to career discovery and exploration paths that lead to high-wage, high-demand careers. Importantly, Find the Why! is an equitable solution that provides this opportunity regardless of socioeconomic status, geographic location, or other real or perceived barriers to success. With this access established young people can now have positive career experiences right in the community in which they live and can see themselves in that community in the future. Access to career pathways and job opportunities leads to community betterment and stability increasing the livability of a given area. The transformational change in North and South Omaha will always be propelled by families, community, church leaders, and the cool twenty-somethings in the neighborhood who can show “kids” that they have a legitimate shot to be more successful than the previous generation. Access to success begets further success which can be replicated in the very community where kids are growing up. Instead of the police sirens ringing out in the night, it is the ringing of cash registers circulating high-wage career paychecks back into the neighborhood businesses, it is bank accounts growing, it is seeing local investment in the neighborhood gathering spots, new small businesses opening, and homes being purchased by someone that grew up there - call it vested ownership. Whatever you call it, it is driven by access. #ftwOmaha! is driven by access to good data for the young people who are participating in career discovery and exploration and access to equally good data for the companies looking to attract, recruit, hire, and retain these future workers right here in Omaha. By sharing this data with other agencies and organizations serving these same young people in the identified QCT areas, we help advance their respective missions for the benefit of the young people we are collectively serving. #ftwOmaha! must demonstrate a return on investment and that ROI comes in the form of good data yielding better decisions which benefits individuals, families, communities and all the organizations therein.
#ftwOmaha! is driven by access to good data for the young people who are participating in career discovery and exploration and access to equally good data for the companies looking to attract, recruit, hire, and retain these future workers right here in Omaha. By sharing this data with other agencies and organizations serving these same young people in the identified QCT areas, we help advance their respective missions for the benefit of the young people we are collectively serving.
An innovative, long-term solution to an endemic problem, Find the Why! is a first of its kind mobile workforce development app. Student participants register and login to Find the Why! where they are able to solve real problems from multiple companies across the greater Omaha area and nationally. Accompanying each problem is a road map of questions which helps guide participants through their solution process. Over the course of the seven-day challenge each student completes four assessments giving them unique insights into their interests and furthering their career exploration. During the challenge participants receive mentorship from industry experts serving as advisors and each solution is judged by a national panel of judges with winners receiving prizes and work-based scholarships, as well as, internship and apprenticeship offers. Find the Why! combines multiple aspects of proven practices into an easily accessible, fun, engaging, and rewarding mobile experience that is highly relevant to young people. Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program identified several elements essential to successful work based learning. (https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/20201120_BrookingsMetro_Work-based-learning_Final_Report.pdf) Notably, Find the Why! incorporates all of these elements in support of young people’s career exploration journey: 1.) Connections to skill-building and/or jobs and career pathways. 2.) Meaningful job tasks with clear expectations and some level of autonomy. 3.) Positive adult-youth relationships that provide support, guidance, and feedback. 4.) Opportunities for assessment and reflection about skill development, learning objectives, successes, and challenges. 5.) Supportive services that enable young people to participate (such as school schedule accommodation and transportation) and we would add ready access via a mobile device. 6.) Compensation for interns and apprentices, and school credit for less intensive or more education-driven WBL services.
Total number of participants - The grant will provide Find the Why! to 13,741 sixth through ninth grade students, 11,454 tenth through twelfth graders and 2,100 reentry individuals. Young people are incentivized to participate in various ways including prize money provided by the sponsor companies, internship and apprenticeship offers, and job offers. All participants also automatically receive a Find the Why! digits resume which is automatically created and maintained throughout their participation in Find the Why! challenges. Total number of repeat participants - Once a student has participated in one Find the Why! challenge their ongoing participation is tracked. Based on their grade when they first engage the program, many of these students will have the opportunity to participate for multiple years as they move from grade to grade. Participant feedback - Did this Challenge help clarify your future? Data from past years' challenges concretely demonstrates Find the Why! helps participants clarify their future. This is one of the most meaningful metrics we track as it further informs the plans young people have for their future. Next steps - We track offers for company tours, virtual internship, internship, or apprenticeship offers and acceptance rates, as well as, job offers received as a direct result of a student’s participation. Again, note the high correlation between internships and hiring with an intern conversion rate of 64% according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. In support of these outcomes, Find the Why’s! evaluation plan includes both quantitative and qualitative performance measures that track the number of students who build upon an opportunity from one of the industry or postsecondary partners. As a standard practice, project staff will use a learning management system to catalog each students’ challenge and assessment data for the exclusive use of the student at the individual level and for broader use at the aggregate level.
In support of these outcomes, Find the Why’s! evaluation plan includes both quantitative and qualitative performance measures that track the number of students who build upon an opportunity from one of the industry or postsecondary partners. As a standard practice, project staff will use a learning management system to catalog each students’ challenge and assessment data for the exclusive use of the student at the individual level and for broader use at the aggregate level. The project has an expert in data analyst and program evaluation staffed.
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Yes
We have formal and informal engagements with several employers and companies headquartered in and around or recruiting from the identified QCT areas. This translates the #ftwOmaha! program workforce development efforts into local workers filling local jobs while remaining and positively impacting these QCT areas. Partner collaboration - Our partners benefit from access to aggregate data generated by Find the Why! that furthers their mission and efforts. We share our aggregated data with our nonprofit and philanthropic partners for the benefit of their constituents. Through a formal partnership with OPS, our reach is 24,000 young people in the middle and high schools. We are eager to collaborate with other reputable nonprofits addressing the needs of this disproportionately impacted group of young people. Other collaborative efforts which increase effective “wrap-around services” include partners such as Heartland Workforce Solutions (HWS) and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Youth Services in order to maximize a student’s transition into professional life regardless of industry. Symphony Workforce will leverage our HSW and WIOA partnerships to support justice-involved individual’s re-entry into the workforce and support the participating industries' cost of onboarding. Funding from the Department of Labor is brought into the community through HWS, the local workforce development board serving residents in Douglas, Washington, and Sarpy counties.
Through a formal partnership with OPS, our reach is 25,000 young people in the middle and high schools. We are eager to collaborate with other reputable nonprofits addressing the needs of this disproportionately impacted group of young people. Other collaborative efforts which increase effective “wrap-around services” include partners such as Heartland Workforce Solutions (HWS) and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Youth Services in order to maximize a student’s transition into professional life regardless of industry. Symphony Workforce will leverage our HSW and WIOA partnerships to support justice-involved individual’s re-entry into the workforce and support the participating industries' cost of onboarding. Funding from the Department of Labor is brought into the community through HWS, the local workforce development board serving residents in Douglas, Washington, and Sarpy counties.
No
Find the Why! is designed to be delivered as a virtual program and therefore, will be highly available and accessible to young people in the designated QCT areas. As a mobile application, young people across the designated QCT area can readily engage and participate in the program without brick and mortar or transportation-dependent geographic limitations. Consistent with past, proven engagement methods, we will execute targeted awareness campaigns via popular social media outlets in addition to in-school promotions and provide onboarding support for young people wanting to participate in the program. Find the Why! is available through any internet connected device and thus is readily available to OPS students in QCT areas through the devices they received during the pandemic. This grant request is focused on QCT areas east of Interstate 680 and west of the Missouri River referred to as the North and South Omaha Qualified Census Tract. Should the committee wish to expand the #ftwOmaha! program to include QCT areas in other regions of Nebraska we can readily scale to include more young people from a wide geography.
Within one or more QCTs
This program will serve all eligible participants in the stated QCT areas as we do not have the limitations of traditional brick and mortar programming.
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Budget Narrative Uploaded with Budget
Cost: 3-year annual cost Student - $135.00 annual license (including summer virtual internships) = $135.00 x student: ● 6th grade students 2,514 ($339,390) ● 7th grade students 3,797 ($512,595) ● 8th grade students 3,837 ($517,995) ● 9th grade students 3,593 ($485,055) ○ Six (6) 7-day Challenges during the school year and two (2) 30-day virtual internship periods in the summer months ○ Without the summer virtual internship, the cost per student per day to impact all 6th - 9th grade students are $1,855,035 /42 days of engagement/13,741 students = $3.21 Re-Entry Project- $135.00 annual license (including virtual internships throughout the year) - $135.00 x 2100 participants = $283,500 ● Six (6) 14-day Challenges and two (2) 30-day virtual internships ● Cost/day of direct engagement is $0.94 ($283,500/144 days/2,100 participants) New Project Directors (QCT K-12 & Re-Entry Project) Evaluator/Grant Writer - 5% of total project
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Sustainability through Public Private Partnerships - In short, the program will be fiscally sustainable and will not require ongoing primary funding for operations or be solely dependent on additional funding requests. Symphony has built strong relationships in both the public and private sectors in support of sustaining the Find the Why! program through public private partnerships (PPP). Our success is based on sustainability which comes, in part, from these healthy partnerships in the form of direct and indirect funding. Symphony will readily share our data with the non-profit partners that impact the youth in these QCTs. By sharing data, we will further their work, making their dollars go farther toward helping these communities and constituents. Subsequent to this specific proposal, our success-based funding will come proportionally from private industry, philanthropy, and government.
o SBIR - Partnering both rural community expansion and multilingual platform translation. o Internship and Crime Prevention Grant - Partnering with the Empowerment Network and JAG Nebraska to ensure a 12-month mix of virtual and onsite micro and macro internship opportunities to retain and recruit youth to Nebraska. o Sherwood Grant - in 2023 Fall to explore a “Whole Class” experience for 2nd -5th grade students. Exposure to careers in the same way the YMCA exposes students to athletics. o Continued funding from the City of Omaha and Douglas County to focus on workforce and youth crime prevention solutions.
Identified above for the dates known.
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Find the Why! is currently used by young people across the United States and in other countries in Europe and South America. Each state is seeking to include specific assessments, industries, and features that can only be accomplished through a flexible, adaptable technology platform. We are prioritizing state requests based on support and funding.
Symphony Workforce Foundation will pay for the license fees for all 10th -12th grades in the QTC and all youth in DCYC: • 10th grade students = 3,669 • 11th grade students = 3,676 • 12th grade students = 4,044 • DCYC participants = 65 • Total Cost = $1,546,290 (11,454 students/young people)
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Organizational Chart Pro Forma Proposal Budget/Sources and Uses Schedule