MILWAUKEE-The Donors Forum of Wisconsin is pleased to announce the winner of the annual Wisconsin Good Grant Award, which honors innovative grants and exemplary partnerships between grantmakers and nonprofit organizations.  This year's recipient is Justice 2000, Inc. for their grant project of the Center for Driver's License Recovery and Employability program.
 
Justice 2000 established the Center for Driver's License Recovery and Employability program in March 2007 to increase the number of licensed drivers among Milwaukee County's low-income residents, increasing their ability to find and retain family-supporting jobs. Each grantor has supported this critical mission because of its necessity to connect low-income job seekers to employment; it is currently the first of its kind in the country. The grantors of this project include: The City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin Departments of Transportation and Workforce Development, Helen Bader Foundation, Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Milwaukee Area Technical College, Forest County Potawatomi Community Foundation and Patrick and Anna M. Cudahy Fund.
 
A 2006 study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Employment and Training Institute found that 89,489 Milwaukee County residents are under driver's license suspension or revocation and more than 50 percent of those persons have never had a driver's license. The majority of these residents are not suspended or revoked due to unsafe driving, but because of non-moving violations like failure to pay fines, driving without a license, non-driving related convictions and juvenile convictions
 
Individuals with low incomes and/or minimal education have difficulty completing the steps needed to obtain a license, as the process typically requires multiple steps in multiple courts. The grantors involved with this effort have allowed the program's case managers and attorneys to work with low-income Milwaukee County residents to develop individualized recovery plans and effectively execute the plans.
 
"This process serves a variety of essential services: it helps relieve circuit court caseloads, allows my office to better protect the community by focusing its limited resources on more serious offenders, and helps reintegrate many Operation After Revocation (OAR) offenders into the workforce, as lack of a driver's license can be a serious impediment to employment," said John Chisholm, Milwaukee County District Attorney.
 
The Good Grant Award recipients will be recognized at the Donors Forum's Annual Statewide Conference on Philanthropy on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at the Italian Conference Center in Milwaukee, WI.  Justice 2000, Inc. will receive an award and a $5,000 donation from the Donors Forum for the Good Grant Award, generously sponsored by Rockwell Automation.  

 

About the Donors Forum of Wisconsin

The Donors Forum of Wisconsin is a professional membership association for grantmakers in Wisconsin with a focus on creating opportunities for the exchange of ideas and information, disseminating current nonprofit sector trends and research, fostering relationships between service providers and funders, building partnerships within and outside the sector, and advancing the growth and enhancement of stewardship of philanthropic resources for the betterment of all Wisconsin residents.
 
For 30 years, the Donors Forum has served family foundations, corporate foundations and giving programs, independent and community foundations as the premier resource for philanthropy in Wisconsin.
 
For more information visit our website at www.dfwonline.org or call (414) 270-1978

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