Staples Foundation for Learning Awards $10,000 Grant to Jobs for Cincinnati Graduates
Funds will support leadership and career development for high school students

CINCINNATI, OH (November 18, 2005) - Jobs for Cincinnati Graduates, a school-to-career transition program focused on helping at-risk Cincinnati youth graduate from high school, announced today that it has received a $10,000 grant from Staples Foundation for Learning. The grant will fund the Career Association, Leadership, and Career Development programs, which provide youth with hands-on job and career readiness skills practice, as well as leadership and career development skill-building opportunities.

"Support from the Staples Foundation for Learning will enable us to build and enhance the necessary job preparation, educational and leadership skills high school students need to advance their careers and become active members in the community," said Barbara Seibel, Executive Director of Jobs for Cincinnati Graduates.

"Jobs for Cincinnati Graduates has a wonderful program that helps with drop out prevention and career preparation for young people throughout Cincinnati." "JCG employees reduce turnover, because they are prepared for the workplace, and a reduction in turnover, increases bottom line profits for the company," stated Joy Errico, spokesperson for Staples Foundation for Learning.

Jobs for Cincinnati Graduates is part of Jobs for Ohio's Graduates, a statewide program that helps youth successfully transition from school to career upon graduation. Its mission is to assist students with barriers to success to graduate from high school and thereafter find and keep quality jobs and enter post-secondary education or training. Launched over two decades ago, JCG and JOG are accredited by Jobs for America's Graduates. JCG and JOG are comprehensive, performance driven strategies for shifting positively the disturbing societal statistics regarding rates of dropout, graduation, and transition from high school to the private sector labor force. Of the most recent group of 250 youth completing the program, 92% graduated or received their GED and 90% successfully implemented a plan of employment and/or post-secondary education

Launched in August of 2002, Staples Foundation for Learning, Inc. is a private foundation created by Staples Inc. to provide funding to charitable programs that support or provide job training or educational opportunities to all people, with a special emphasis on disadvantaged youth. To date, Staples Foundation for Learning has awarded nearly $3 million dollars in grants to non-profit organizations and is a national sponsor of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. For more information about the foundation or how to apply for a grant, please visit www.staplesfoundation.org.