Microsoft Unlimited Potential Blog: Microsoft Unlimited Potential Blog

Today we are launching the Elevate America community initiative, a new grant program that will support nonprofit organizations offering employment services, including technology skills training and job placement, in local communities across the United States. To support this initiative, we are committing $4 million in cash, $6 million in software and technology skills training curriculum over the next two years.

We are inviting nonprofit organizations to respond to our request for proposal (RFP) , detailing their plans for partnering with us on proven, successful, scalable programs that respond to the 21^st century skills training and employment needs of people across the country.

The deadline for submissions is October 8, 2010 at 5pm Pacific Time with the successful projects being announced in January 2011.

Since 2003, Microsoft has been partnering with nonprofit organizations through our Unlimited Potential initiative to support technology skills training in underserved communities across the United States, with programs that have reached more than 27 million people to date. Through the Elevate America community initiative, we will continue to seek partnerships with organizations that support underserved communities, with a special interest in those that focus on the needs of women and young workers (ages 18-25) who have greater barriers to employment and re-employment than the broader population.

This is the latest extension of Elevate America, which was launched in February 2009 to provide people across the United States with no cost and low cost access to the technology skills they need to find employment. Since the program’s launch we have worked with 32 states and the District of Columbia to distribute nearly 900,000 no cost Microsoft training and certification vouchers. In March 2010 we announced the Elevate America Veterans initiative, focused on helping U.S. veterans and their spouses to transition from military to civilian employment.

How can you respond to this RFP?

Interested organizations are encouraged to review the full RFP and related information on our website to ensure their organization meets the full criteria for consideration.

To be eligible, all proposals must include at least one organization that is eligible to receive cash funding from Microsoft as defined by the following criteria:

• Qualify as an IRS registered tax exempt 501(c)(3) organization. State tax exemptions alone are not considered eligible.
• Meet Microsoft general funding guidelines as outlined in “Eligible Organizations” .
• Successfully pass the Elevate America community initiative eligibility survey located here. Following successful completion of the survey, access to the grant application tool will be provided.

Online training resources

For more information about Elevate America and the no cost and low cost training and education resources we offer to help people develop better technology skills for the jobs of the 21^st century workforce please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/elevateamerica

For many parents and teachers, this time of year means preparing for back to school and looking forward to a new school year full of possibilities. Parents are busy making sure their children are ready and have the gear they need for school. Meanwhile educators are preparing their lessons and personalizing their classrooms for the students.

While not on the traditional back-to-school checklist, making sure student technology is prepped for a student that has a learning or physical disability is worth remembering. Whether you are a parent, educator or both – you understand the challenge of supporting students with different learning styles. When a student has a disability, supporting their educational success includes making sure their PC is comfortable to see, hear, and use.

At Microsoft we have published Accessibility: A Guide for Educators which explains to educators and parents how to make sure students with disabilities can comfortably see, hear, and use their PC to enhance their learning. For those new to accessibility and working with a child with a disability, accessibility can seem overwhelming. The guide explains types of disabilities and possible accessibility solutions and products, including walking you through how to use the accessibility features and program that come with Microsoft Windows.

As schools encourage students to use technology to acquire new skills, parents and schools have a responsibility to provide accessible technology that can be personalized for each student’s needs. We at Microsoft take that responsibility seriously and want to help parents and teachers understand how to make sure students with disabilities have equal access to learning.

Too few people know about the accessibility features and programs that built into their Windows computers. I encourage you to share this information with the parent of child with a disability or a teacher you know. After all, nearly all of us know someone with a disability.

LaDeana Huyler, Senior Product Manager for Accessibility, Microsoft

LaDeana is passionate about increasing awareness about accessibility, especially for children with disabilities. For more than ten years, she’s worked on accessibility at Microsoft including publishing the Microsoft Accessibility Web site.

Working at Microsoft, I’m fully aware of the amazing things that people can do with technology and the impact that it can have, but every now and then, my knowledge is taken to new depths – literally!

The Octopus Deep-Sea Archeology Research Association has a long history of successful discoveries of treasures hidden deep in the ocean. They have identified and explored several shipwrecks in different regions. During these projects there is a huge amount of data and images created, but until recently, they had not figured out how to effectively manage all this information. 

When members of the Octopus Association first contacted Microsoft, they asked for a donation of Windows Server 2003. However, after assessing their needs and seeing the sheer volume of photos, videos and data that they had to handle, we quickly realized that there were other ways that Microsoft technology could help. Following a number of additional meetings to better understand their specific requirements, Microsoft Hungary donated software valued at over $30,000, featuring products such as SharePoint, Silverlight and Photosynth.

Along with the software, we worked with the Association to use technology that could bring the work of the archeologists into the living room of people everywhere. One of the most spectacular solutions that the Octopus Association are using is Photosynth, which enables them to combine different photos of an object to produce a 3D image. Below you can see two interesting examples. One showcases a wine bottle, the other one a sculpture, both on the exact location where they were found. Click on the images to view the Photosynth.

Besides photos, the Octopus Association discovered that videos could be shared as well, using Microsoft Silverlight technology. These interactive multimedia elements will be introduced in a virtual online museum that is planned to be launched within a year. The museum will use embedded accessibility tools to ensure that the visually impaired can experience their work also.

Helping to share the results of the Association’s discoveries with a wider audience is only a small fraction of our support of the Octopus Association. One of the most important changes was helping them to transfer their organization's portal to SharePoint, since this technology is ideal for collecting and sharing data created at geographically disparate locations, which is of course regular practice in the Association’s work.  

Moreover, through some help from Microsoft's system engineers, the IT manager of Octopus created a solution to enhance the transfer of information on new finds to historians, archaeologists and researchers involved in the projects, all over the world.

Using SharePoint has made research administration very efficient, as opposed to the former, paper based solution, making tasks such as bulk inquiries and filters much more efficient.   Not only are archaeological records entered into the database, but divers' logs are linked to these data.  In the case of any potential deviations, the system initiates an alarm.  The software can calculate this by comparing current and historic data, and is able to alarm the team leader in time, before any issue might arise.

Members of Octopus also exploit the advantages of Windows 7's security functions.  The Association’s IT manager is a big fan of Windows 7 networking, search, data management and display functionality.  He believes that the management of data communications is significantly faster in Windows 7, while less user interaction is required for frequently used functions.

Because our Microsoft team closely follows the Association, to provide technical and professional assistance, I have managed to learn a great deal about their work.  I’m proud and pleased to have experienced the excitement of working on this project and amazed once again to learn that there are a vast number of creative ways to use Microsoft's technologies.  This gives new meaning to my understanding of Unlimited Potential and where we might go from here.

Bernadette Szilagyi

Microsoft Hungary Unlimited Potential Program manager

Last week the White House announced the inaugural grants of the Social Innovation Fund (SIF) that included the National Fund for Workforce Solutions (NFWS), as one of 11 award recipients. The two-year, $7.7 million award will fund an expansion of existing training programs in several of 23 NFWS sites and the establishment of 6-8 new sites.

Displaced workers in America’s cities are the beneficiaries of the good news here.  The National Fund is already providing sector-based training for adults in cities such as Baltimore, Hartford, New York and Seattle and is developing best practices that can be replicated in other communities.  As an SIF recipient, the National Fund is uniquely positioned to help transform the way we cultivate talent in the U.S., especially for more than 80 million adults who struggle without 21st century skills that  align with today’s new knowledge economy.

The other factor to be celebrated here is the power of collaboration around an idea that became the National Fund.  Through this unique partnership that began in 2000, corporate, private and family foundations pooled their resources and expertise with help from an established workforce intermediary, Jobs for the Future, to focus on jobs skills and training. Since its founding, the $23 million investment by nine donors has engaged over 200 local and regional partners and 500 employers to support skills training to prepare for jobs in growth sectors such as health care.

In 2009, over 18,000 job seekers and incumbent workers received training and career support, 9,736 participants received degrees or credentials, and 4,058 jobseekers secured jobs as a result of their participation and 81% of those hired are working more than 35 hours per week.

Microsoft, one of nine investors in the National Fund, made an $8 million commitment in cash and software to support this collaboration and has been-active along with other donors (including the Hitachi, Wal-Mart, Annie E. Casey,  Prudential and Ford foundations) in  addressing this national issue.   These efforts are closely aligned with our Elevate America skills training program and Microsoft continues to promote community-based training and to provide access to the technology tools that will strengthen the skills needed for displaced and disadvantaged workers to be successful.

Public/private partnerships such as the NFWS are more relevant and more important than ever to help identify the best approaches to large scale workforce training needed to address the skills gap that has surfaced during the recent economic downturn. Policymakers are also likely to focus on these issues more intently as the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act emerges on the national agenda. As these scenarios unfold, the National Fund may play a key role in building effective models and helping communities to be more competitive.

First Lady Michelle Obama described the intent of the Social Innovation Fund this way: “By focusing on high-impact, results-oriented nonprofits, we will ensure that government dollars are spent in a way that is effective, accountable and worthy of public trust.”
For now, the investors in the National Fund are celebrating the accomplishments that have resulted in this program expansion and preparing for the hard work and the opportunity to take a giant step forward and ideally engage additional partners on behalf of America’s workers.

Cross posted from Microsoft on the Issues.