Mayor Ras J. Baraka, the Newark Municipal Council, and the City of Newark will accept a symbolic $1.5 million check from the Foundation for Newark’s Future President and CEO Kimberly Baxter McLain this morning in the rotunda at City Hall.
The money will be used to fund Mayor Baraka’s 2015 Summer Youth Employment Program, which will work to provide summer jobs and internships for 2,300 Newark you in the private and public sectors, working in corporate, business, government, education, and non-profit sites throughout Newark. The funding comes from the foundation created with the $100 million gift given to Newark by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Foundation for Newark’s Future is an education foundation working to improve educational outcomes for Newark students. The foundation is part of a $200 million campaign for Newark’s public schools, established in 2010 with a $100 million matching grant from Mark Zuckerberg and quickly met with a $25 million investment by William A. Ackman at the Pershing Square Foundation, among others. The foundation invests in programs and initiatives across Newark that create large-scale change through short-term philanthropy.
