Newport Wins $400,000 Grant

NEWPORT, RI — The City by the Sea has bagged $400,000 to help low-income people find jobs. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President and CEO Eric Rosengren and Gov. Gina Raimondo announced Thursday that Cranston, Newport, and Providence won the Fed’s Working Cities Challenge, a competition for Rhode Island communities to improve the lives of low- and moderate-income residents. The grants are different, although all three will receive $400,000 over a period of years.

Newport's proposal dealt with lifting "families out of poverty through the development of a well-established, integrated, and efficient workforce development system to fill vacancies in high demand industries within the city," the press release said.

Cranston looks to increase social cohesion and address opportunity gaps among its growing low-income, minority populations, and more established communities. Providence hopes to transform how the city’s workforce system connects to and works with underserved job seekers in the city’s poorest areas.

Rosengren and other Boston Fed officials will visit each of the winning teams in their respective communities. They will be at the Martin Luther King Center today. The cities will be celebrated on May 12 at an event with President Rosengren and Governor Raimondo to be held at 2 p.m. at the Providence Public Library.

Funding for the Working Cities Challenge is not provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, but by a collaboration of the state of Rhode Island including the Raimondo administration, the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation, the Rhode Island Department of Labor & Training, and Rhode Island Housing. Funding is also provided by local and national philanthropic organizations including the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the Rhode Island Foundation, Living Cities, and NeighborWorks America, as well as private-sector firms including Delta Dental of Rhode Island, Bank of America, the Washington Trust Company, AT&T New England, Verizon, and Webster Bank.

For more on the Working Cities Challenge, visit www.bostonfed.org/WorkingCities.