Grant will support the organization’s workforce development program to provide assistance for at-risk youth with employment barriers

BOISE, ID — August 28, 2023 —KeyBank has awarded a $100,000 grant to Life’s Kitchen, a non-profit organization that prepares at-risk youth in Idaho to be successful in food service and other careers. The KeyBank grant will allow Life’s Kitchen to expand its program and equip more young adults with the skills and training needed to secure employment.
“KeyBank is proud of the mission and work of Life’s Kitchen,” said Scott Schlange, president of KeyBank Idaho. “This grant will help to equip more young adults in our community with the confidence, skills and training needed to navigate the workplace and manage their household budgets.”
Founded in 2003 by local restaurateur Rory Farrow, Life’s Kitchen operates three foodservice businesses to provide on-the-job work experience to trainees. In addition to foodservice training, students receive GED training, and attend life skills and employability classes each week. The curriculum covers a broad range of topics, including financial literacy, healthy relationship skills, mock job interviews, understanding insurance, taxes, college enrollment and more.
“Life’s Kitchen offers the confidence and training so desperately needed for at-risk youth to gain sustainable employment, escape poverty and learn to become financially stable,” said Angel Reyes, corporate responsibility officer for KeyBank in Idaho and Utah. “KeyBank is honored to support this valuable and much-needed community initiative.”
More than 53% of Life’s Kitchen students live at or below the poverty level and 20% experience homelessness. In addition, many of these young adults face other serious challenges, such as mental illness, addiction, and abuse.
“We have seen the increased need in our community to support and provide workforce development, life skills and GED services to our young adults,” said Tammy Johnson, Executive Director of Life’s Kitchen. “The $100,000 impact grant from KeyBank Foundation will provide the means to help us reach more young adults to become independent and self-sustainable. On behalf of the board, staff, and our young adults we are deeply grateful. The KeyBank investment will open doors for more youth in our community.”
 
About Life’s Kitchen
Life’s Kitchen is a 501c3 nonprofit social enterprise organization, providing Opportunity Youth (at-risk youth) ages 16-24 with wrap around work and life skills since 2003. Through our Workforce Development, Food Service, Life Skills, and GED Training Program, trainees receive the valuable skills and resources they need to become independent, financially stable, and successful. Life’s Kitchen students not only graduate from our program – they become part of a community. Upon graduation from the program, alumni maintain access to support from Life’s Kitchen for multiple needs including connecting with resources, continuing education, job placement and much more. Fifty-nine percent of alumni continued to engage whether for assistance or volunteer opportunities. Over the years, Life's Kitchen has provided over 575,000 hours of job training to more than 900 young adults, while providing more than 1,350,000 meals to community members in need. Life’s Kitchen provides 1,000 meals a week to Interfaith Sanctuary to help feed the homeless community.

About KeyCorp
KeyCorp's roots trace back nearly 200 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $195 billion at June 30, 2023. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and approximately 1,300 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC.


CONTACT:    
Life’s Kitchen:                                                                         KeyBank:
Tammy Johnson                                                           Jennifer Shermer
208-331-0199 x 302                                                           303-902-9419
[email protected]                                         [email protected]


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Grant will support Trailhead’s endeavours to expand career pathway and educational opportunities for rural high school students

BOISE, ID — August 24, 2023 —KeyBank has awarded a $200,000 grant to Trailhead, a non-profit organization offering mentoring and support services to Idaho student entrepreneurs. The grant will allow Trailhead to expand its You Lead Idaho program and empower more students through education, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, innovation and technology.

“Programs like You Lead Idaho equip students with the confidence and skills needed to build businesses and offer sustainable employment for Idaho citizens,” said Scott Schlange, president of KeyBank Idaho. “I look forward to seeing the results of our students’ entrepreneurial skills and pioneering ideas.”

You Lead Idaho utilizes an approved entrepreneurial curriculum delivered remotely to rural students. The program’s goal is to increase the college go-on rates of rural students through a program that fosters learning, technology, and mentorship. The program culminates with an online pitch competition where scholarship dollars will be awarded, based on student team presentations to Idaho-based judges.

“Small town kids don’t always have opportunities that kids in a bigger city do,” said Shelli Shroeder, Counselor at Shoshone High School. “By asking them to grow and making them a little bit uncomfortable, it creates the opportunity for them to say, ‘I did this, now I can go to college’ and have confidence in that.”
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The grant will also allow Trailhead to grow the program by providing additional scholarship dollars and monetary awards to winning schools and teachers, as well as award dual-enrollment college credits and increase the mentorship hours available to student teams.

About You Lead Idaho
You Lead Idaho empowers rural high school students in Idaho through education in entrepreneurship, financial literacy, innovation, and technology. It offers mentorship, scholarships, and dual college credit to expand educational opportunities. Collaboratively developed by Trailhead, KeyBank, and IDLA, the program uses an approved entrepreneurial curriculum delivered remotely. Idaho's low college go-on rates, as reported by Idaho Education News, have stagnated at 45-46% since 2015. You Lead Idaho aims to increase these rates by fostering learning, e-learning, technology, and mentorship in rural areas. Participation in the program equips students with valuable skills and broadens their post-graduation choices, positively impacting their educational and career pathways in rural Idaho communities.

After a comprehensive 8 unit academic module, the program will culminate in an online pitch competition, where high school teams will present their ideas to judges located in Boise and other locations throughout Idaho. Each team will present online from their respective schools to the panel of judges. The judges determine 1st and 2nd place winners, who then receive scholarships.

After conclusion of the program, students will also have the opportunity to travel to Boise for a 2-day immersion experience, leading up to another pitch competition where they will compete against urban schools (Boise State University's "Idaho High School Entrepreneurial Challenge") for more cash prizes.
 
To date, You Lead Idaho has achieved the following impacts on rural high school students:

• 132 students have participated and completed the program
• 22 rural schools in Idaho have participated, representing 9 rural school districts.
• $10,000 have been awarded directly to the schools of the 1st place teams
• $10,000 have been awarded directly in stipends to the teachers who participate in the program
• $40,000 have been awarded in scholarships to rural high school students
• Over 320 hours of mentorship and coaching have been delivered to students
• 315 dual enrollment credits for college and universities have been earned by students

About Trailhead
Trailhead is an innovation and start-up hub located in downtown Boise, the capital of Idaho. We are a 501 c3 non-profit and were founded through a public and private partnership initiative in 2015. Our vision is to democratize access to entrepreneurship. We do so by relentlessly pursuing our mission to help entrepreneurs succeed (regardless of age, background, socio-economic status, gender, ethnicity etc.), so they can start and grow companies in our City and State. Entrepreneurs drive innovation, and, in turn, innovation drives our economic development. With intentional and targeted entrepreneurial support, an entire start-up ecosystem can be cultivated in a community, which will in turn drive economic growth and increase prosperity for people from all walks of life. At Trailhead, we nurture the entrepreneurial spirit and strive to promote diversity and inclusion. We provide early stage entrepreneurs with a collaborative and inclusive coworking space, mentorship, educational programming and experiential learning, all while nurturing and developing the entrepreneurial community.

About KeyCorp
KeyCorp's roots trace back nearly 200 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $195 billion at June 30, 2023. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and approximately 1,300 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC.

CONTACT:    
Trailhead                                                                             KeyBank:
Tiam Rastegar                                                               Jennifer Shermer
208-546-8426                                                                   303-902-9419
[email protected]                                        [email protected]

CONTACT: Jason Rose | Communications Director work: 208-258-2739 | cell: 208-906-0189

Boise, IDAHO – On August 7, the Valley Regional Transit (VRT) Board of Directors released the final Better Bus Routes proposal – the agency’s bus network redesign – for public comment. The proposed changes can be viewed at rideVRT.org/changes.
The proposal, which represents a ten percent increase in total bus service and more frequent bus arrivals, includes:
• More buses arriving more often on highly used bus routes in Ada County, including an increase to 15-minute bus arrivals on the 7 Fairview
• New bus routes in Caldwell and expanded on-demand service in Canyon County
• Improved intercounty and cross-town connections (including new north-south options), with easier transfers to major destinations across the region
• Service consolidation or reduction on less-used bus routes
• Expanded transit connections through VRT’s partnership with Lyft to areas that would lose bus service
• The introduction of Beyond ACCESS, a new regional service for qualifying older adults and persons with disabilities providing no-cost trips in and between Ada and Canyon counties
“Our goal has been to create a better bus system including a move toward a higher-frequency network,” said VRT’s CEO Elaine Clegg. “Thanks to valuable community feedback, we believe we have struck a balance between buses arriving more often in critical places and offering service to areas that need it.”
Significant public input this spring helped shape the proposal. VRT is taking additional public feedback on the proposal until Friday, September 15 via:
• Online survey: rideVRT.org/redesign
• Email: [email protected]
• Phone message: 208-258-2702
• Public hearings:
• Nampa (City Council Chambers)
o Thursday, August 31
o 5 p.m. | Open House
o 6 p.m. | Public Hearing
• Boise (City Council Chambers)
o Thursday, September 7
o 5 p.m. | Open House
o 6 p.m. | Public Hearing
• Meridian (VRT Office)
o Tuesday, September 12
o 5 p.m. | Open House
o 6 p.m. | Public Hearing
Valley Regional Transit, 700 NE 2nd Street, Meridian, ID 83642
• Caldwell (CPD Community Room)
o Thursday, September 14
o 5 p.m. | Open House
o 6 p.m. | Public Hearing
Following the public comment period, VRT staff will analyze feedback and make final changes to the proposal. VRT’s Board of Directors will meet on October 2 to review public comments and consider the final proposal. The agency plans to implement service changes by summer 2024.
Since April, VRT received significant public feedback through open houses, virtual town halls, surveys, and a variety of other community outreach events. Staff used this feedback alongside ridership data including ridership, ridership, proximity to bus stops, proximity to higher frequency routes, and frequency of bus arrivals to guide decisions in the proposal development.
“We have heard concerns about losing service with this change, and we have made adjustments to the proposal accordingly,” Clegg said. “We also heard support for gaining service in places that don’t currently have any, and we are excited to extend service to places that we think will benefit.”
Lacking taxing authority, VRT plans for transit services based on contributions of funding from cities, counties, and other partners in the region. For more information on the network redesign, please visit rideVRT.org/redesign and follow VRT on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Nextdoor.
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About Valley Regional Transit
Valley Regional Transit (VRT) has been connecting people to the community they love to live in for over 20 years and is the regional public transportation authority for Ada and Canyon counties. VRT bus services include 18 fixed routes in Ada County, on-demand bus service in Eagle and Canyon County, four inter-county routes, and numerous specialized transportation options. For more information, please visit rideVRT.org.

Join H&R Block for a hiring fair at 2743 S Broadway Ave., Boise, Idaho on Tuesday, August 15th from 5PM to 8PM for a hiring fair! Learn more about careers at H&R Block by visiting: hrblock.com/team