Urban League of Greater Madison

Work - our current array of adult career pathway training and coaching services includes work readiness assessments; individualized employment planning and career advising; individualized foundational job preparation training; short-term, employer-focused, career-pathway training academies in health care administration, customer service and sales, information technology, construction trades, and food service; special support and fatherhood development programming for non-custodial fathers; individualized and group job search and job placement assistance: job retention and advancement coaching and case management; engagement of employers through both a local and national network; featured employer seminars; and leadership on region-wide workforce diversity initiatives. In 2022, 669 adult job seekers received career counseling, job training, job placement, job coaching, and/or job retention services. In addition, 600 business and community leaders were served through our economic development & diversity summit, and dozens of other businesses received support through our featured employer events and other candidate referral activities. Our industry and employer-specific training programs included foundations for construction skills academy, skilled trades apprenticeship readiness academy (start), para-educator academy, cuna mutual insurance operations academy, exact sciences academy, healthcare administration academy, intro to pharmacy tech, and medical scheduler academy.

The Urban League continued the work it began in 2021 to develop the black business hub & black business hub accelerator program (hub). The hub is set to become the region's premiere enterprise center devoted to incubating, accelerating, and networking black-owned businesses and entrepreneurs. The hub will be both a physical space and a place-based, black-led entrepreneurial ecosystem of entrepreneurial development services. It will be located in a high-poverty area in the heart of Madison's oldest multicultural neighborhood. It will support diverse businesses by providing an array of affordable spaces, be home to multiple small business development agencies, provide technical assistance, foster a community of diverse entrepreneurs, and provide access to capital. Construction on the 80,000 square foot, 4-story building began in april of 2022. We anticipate tenants moving into the building as early as summer of 2023, with full occupancy projected in 2026. The black business hub accelerator program began operating during q1 of 2022. Over the course of the year, we operated two business accelerator cohorts with nearly 30 participants, provided one-on-one coaching sessions to 75 current small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs, and hosted three free educational webinars with over 100 people participating in one or more of them. Interest in the program continues to grow with over 125 entrepreneurs expressing interest in having space in the building and/or participating in accelerator programming.

Learn - the Urban League of Greater Madison's education and youth development framework is comprised of programs, advocacy, partnerships, and community engagement activities that are focused on ensuring that children in Greater Madison secure the education necessary to thrive in a technology-driven knowledge economy defined by creativity, service, and innovation. The programmatic component of our framework includes initiatives that enhance and support students' core learning experiences in the classroom. In particular, these initiatives focus on serving secondary school age youth through out-of-school time learning and enrichment programs, academic tutoring/coaching programs, career and college exploration programs, cultural enrichment and leadership development programs, and youth employment and internship programs. Our 2022 programs included: the schools of hope middle school academic tutoring program (701 youth served); the 21st century careers college, career, and employment readiness program (155 youth served); the martin luther king, jr. Youth day of service (115 youth served); the martin luther king, jr. Outstanding young person and scholarship awards breakfast (271 served); steam camp - science, technology, engineering, arts, math summer camp (45 youth served); my brother's keeper spring break gaming & coding day (56 youth).

In 2020, the League initiated its housing 2.0 program to acquire, renovate, and sell 16 homes to first time income qualified homeowners through new market tax credits program financing. 16 houses were acquired in 2020, and contracts for rehab work were entered totaling approximately $650,000. 13 homes were sold in 2021, and 3 were sold in 2022. As of december 31, 2022, all home sales have been completed.