SWFL NAMED U.S. TALENT HUB

Southwest Florida has been designated a Talent Hub by Lumina Foundation in partnership with The Kresge Foundation and will receive a $125,000 grant to support local efforts to increase educational attainment. Southwest Florida joins Cleveland, Northeast Indiana and Tampa Bay, along with 22 other Talent Hubs selected in 2017 and 2018. These communities meet rigorous standards for creating environments that cultivate, attract, and retain talent, particularly among today’s students, many of whom are adults, black, Hispanic, or Native American, students from low-income households, or the first in their families to go to college, according to a press release. With the one-time award, the Coalition will work with Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU ) and Florida SouthWestern State College (FSW) to propel the region’s attainment numbers over the next 15 months. A portion of the award, $15,000, will go to the FutureMakers Fund at the Foundation to support the overhead of the backbone organization. The remaining dollars will go to FGCU to support a position and marketing to recruit former FGCU adult learners who have stopped-out back to FGCU or FSW to complete a degree in an effort to significantly increase attainment in the near-term. For more information, visit www.FutureMakersCoalition.com. To learn more about the FGCU Complete program, visit fgcu.edu/complete. FSW students who are interested in learning more about educational attainment can visit https://www.fsw.edu/twoplustwo. Talent Hubs are part of Lumina’s $13 million community mobilization strategy, which focuses on local and regional efforts to increase attainment in ways that can inform other communities.