JAG Partnerships

JAG builds on current partnerships and builds new ones in areas of highest priority.

“Jobs” is both the first name and the organizing principle of the work of Jobs for America's Graduates on behalf of the young people it serves.  It is the implied promise of JAG that if students master the JAG Employability Competencies and graduate, JAG will do its utmost to help assure employment in jobs that offer critically important entry-level and career advancement opportunities with or without a postsecondary education.

Boosting Employment

In a time of the highest unemployment rate among young people in history, JAG entered into several promising partnerships focused on boosting employment including:

  • The Wal-Mart Foundation provided critically important financial support to 19 of JAG’s state non-profit organizations to expand the outreach and engagement with employers during a time of the highest unemployment rate among young people in American history. That partnership resulted in thousands of new engagement opportunities with employers.
     
  • McDonalds invited JAG to participate in McDonald’s “National Hiring Day” and pursue career development opportunities with company-owned and franchiser-owned restaurants.
     
  • The HR Policy Association, comprised of chief human resource officers from large employers, partnered with JAG to raise the visibility and awareness of JAG among the nation’s major employers.
     
  • Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Company is the first company that has guaranteed an interview to any JAG graduate who applies for a job.  This is not a guarantee of an offer, but all JAG graduates will be granted an interview.   
     
  • Maximus provides JAG Specialists with access to MAXAdvantage for the purpose of pre-screening JAG students for tax credit eligibility to encourage employers to take advantage of a financial incentive to hire JAG graduates.  MAXAdvantage will also provide access to additional local job opportunities for graduates to pursue.    


Program Growth

Based upon the adoption by the Board of Directors in 2012 of three new growth strategies, JAG partnered with:

  • The AT&T Foundation, awarded a $1,000,000 grant to provide partial incentive grants to 30-35 new and existing schools, to test and/or expand existing JAG programs, with a strategy that would result in long-term viability of sustaining JAG in these new and expanded programs—a permanent change in scale.
     
  • The Delta Regional Authority, committed $250,000 to provide grants to 10 new schools in the DRA service area to demonstrate the JAG Model, with matching funds coming from schools, Workforce Boards, and assorted local funding sources.
     
  • Regions Bank, committed partial funding to sustain a JAG school in Jackson, Mississippi.
     
  • Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and JAG entered into a Cooperative Agreement to bring the success of JAG to schools with heavy concentration of Indian youth in selected BIE schools in Arizona, Montana and South Dakota. Assuming significant success with the implementation of the JAG Model, the BIE has indicated interest in expanding the program to many other locations.  


Combating Youth Unemployment

JAG partnered with the National Urban League and the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) to conduct the JAG National Thought Leader Event, focused on developing policy and programmatic solutions for high-risk youth to overcome extraordinarily high levels of youth unemployment. Governor Markell, JAG Chairman of the Board, personally forwarded therecommendations by those participating in the event to the nation’s Governors, the White House and the U.S. Congress.