Cathy Kanefsky helps out in the Food Bank kitchen
For Bank of America Delaware President Chip Rossi, one of his favorite parts of the local version of Bank of America’s signature Neighborhood Builders® program continues to be how it has helped the selected Delaware organizations evolve and expand their reach in the community.
Chip Rossi
“I think about the Food Bank of Delaware and how they have evolved — first food, now workforce development,” he said of one of this year’s recipients. “There are so many good stories. I think of the impact that the Latin American Community Center has had on the growth of the Delaware Hispanic community.
“I think about REACH Riverside’s work serving the youth in one of our lowest-income neighborhoods. I think about Habitat for Humanity and how they’ve gone from building homes to also doing repair work in the City of Wilmington. And I think about the less mature organizations with great missions that will have a chance to grow.”
In Delaware, Bank of America (BAC) has named the Food Bank of Delaware (for the second time) and The Precision Institute as its 2024 Neighborhood Builders for their work addressing food security, economic mobility, and building career pathways for Delaware’s neurodiverse population.
A committee of local BAC and community leaders chose the recipients. Each has been awarded an unrestricted $200,000 grant over two years, comprehensive leadership training for each organization’s executive director and an emerging leader, and access to a national network of nonprofit peers.
Since the program’s inception in 2004, 31 nonprofits have been selected as Neighborhood Builders in Delaware, with the bank investing more than $6.2 million in philanthropic capital into these nonprofits.
The Neighborhood Builders program is celebrating its 20th anniversary — 18 in Delaware — and BAC has similar programs in more than 100 communities nationwide.
Past Delaware Neighborhood Builders include Delaware Center for Horticulture, Delaware Technical Community College Educational Foundation, Habitat for Humanity New Castle County, TeenSHARP, Latin American Community Center, and True Access Capital.
Here’s some background on this year’s winners:
Food Bank of Delaware
“It was a ‘pinch me’ moment that provided a shot of credibility and validation,” says President and CEO Cathy Kanefsky, whose organization was also selected in 2009 in support of its food-gathering efforts.
The Food Bank of Delaware distributes nourishing food statewide through on-site food pantries at their Newark and Milford locations, a network of community pantries throughout the state, home delivery services, mobile pantries, weekend meals for kids, and a senior nutrition program.
Last year, it distributed more than 19.5 million meals to individuals, families, and communities across the state.
This new grant funding will allow the Food Bank to expand its workforce development and training programs and direct critical services to the communities that need them most.
Kanefsky said the Neighborhood Builders grant will enable the organization to expand its economic mobility and workforce development programs and continue providing critical food distribution services throughout Delaware.
“This recognition is humbling because it’s a stamp of approval from someone like Bank of America,” Kanefsky says. “The grant will help us to sustain programs and build a bridge to the future. It will also help us obtain more sustainable state funding, fill gaps, and apply for other grants that ask for information on who else supports you.”
Several programs fall under its workforce development services, which use $17 million of the Food Bank’s $30 million annual budget.
Food Bank of Delaware Kitchen School students serve guests visiting the Discover Cafe at the Newark site.
The Kitchen School – offered at both the Food Bank’s Newark and Milford sites – is a free 12-week food service training program designed for adults with disabilities. The Kitchen School is a partnership between the Delaware Restaurant Association and the Food Bank in collaboration with instructors and counselors specializing in working with individuals with disabilities.
The Food Bank also operates the Culinary School for people who need a second chance, such as formerly incarcerated people and “folks who are down and out,” Kanefsky said.
Another Food Bank workforce development program is its L.O.G.I.C. (Logistics, Operations, General Warehousing, and Inventory Control) initiative, a 14-week training program certified as a trade school by the Delaware Department of Education. Students are prepared for careers in the warehousing/logistics industry. Students learn to use major equipment like end riders, lift trucks, order pickers and pallet jacks.
As important as the grant is, Kanefsky seems more excited about the leadership component.
“I’m such a believer in having peers you can count on and mentor and learn from,” she said. “Sometimes you can’t share what’s going on as readily. I’ll meet people from 100 other organizations in person and probably develop long-term relationships with 5-10 who I can stay connected with.”
“Selecting the Food Bank for a second time was about the consistency of the impact of their work in our community,” Rossi said. “We continue to be impressed by the depth and breadth of their service to our community. They work collaboratively across various nonprofit groups today. They’re creating jobs through their culinary arts program, employing people with disabilities, dealing with food insecurities, and getting food to locations so they can meet people where they are.”
The Precision Institute
Executive Director Janet Atwater says the best part of her job comes at the end of each program when she delivers an individualized profile that lists and catalogs each person’s skills.
“They tell me that they’re normally told what they’re not and that nobody has ever seen these things in me,” Atwater said.
The Precision Institute assesses and trains individuals impacted by autism and other developmental disabilities to prepare them for full-time employment in the technology and business services industries.
The organization has assessed 400 neurodiverse individuals — 140 of them in Delaware — and 85 percent of them have been hired into IT, business services, and cybersecurity roles.
“The Precision Institute is a less ‘mature’ organization with a very targeted population, working with a population of young adults on the spectrum,” BAC’s Rossi said. “Those young people’s families want to understand how they’ll support themselves in the future and determine where their talents and skills will do the greatest good. The Precision Institute has done a wonderful job finding a match with employers.”
Atwater said neurodiverse individuals have an unemployment/underemployment rate of more than 75%. That’s why The Precision Institute is dedicated to removing barriers to employment by providing accessible training programs that empower candidates to find their strengths and develop the skills they need to obtain meaningful employment and build successful careers.”
“We teach a lot of life skills beyond technical competencies,” she said. “We talk about navigating organizational cultures in companies, what time to go to bed to catch your bus or leave for work, eating patterns, grooming, showering, making sure you have clean clothes. We also talk about communication skills, not friending your boss on Facebook, when to use DMs rather than email.
You can hear the smile over the phone when Atwater relates the success metrics the organization has seen. Where many neurodiverse people only last 6-9 months in a job, her organization can boast a 93% workforce retention rate for 2+ years.
“One of our biggest partners is Exelon [the public utility that owns Peco], she said. “They initially saw this as a corporate charitable exercise. They gave them a project. They thought it would take them a long time, but they knocked the ball out of the park and finished much faster than anticipated with a great return on investment.”
Atwater said the Neighborhood Builders grant funding will underwrite their assessment and training program, support the nonprofit’s newly launched no-cost driving simulator program for neurodiverse teens and adults, and help position leadership for long-term success.
Joe D takes a spin on the simulator as Executive Director Janet Atwater looks on.
Take the driving simulator program, for example. Atwater says one in four neurodiverse individuals have driver’s licenses, which is a barrier to employment. So the organization built a partnership with Vanderbilt and San Diego State University through a National Science Foundation Civic Grant.
“Neurodiverse people have tremendous anxiety around driving, Atwater said. “This is not a driving school; it’s an eight-week program to address the anxiety neurodiverse people feel around driving.
“We have two simulators on site- a virtual reality (VR) simulator and a non-VR and non-VR simulator with a base tracker. We can tell in real-time if the student misses stop signs or a speed limit sign. It helps them overcome anxiety and get hands-on experience with things like weather, traffic, police, and fire vehicles so they can build their confidence.”
The Precision Institute has offices in Wilmington, Phoenix, Nashville, and Philadelphia and works with people in Akron and Cleveland, Ohio, and Erie, Pennsylvania. A third to a half of their clients live in Delaware.
“We’re giving them an opportunity to get into the world, Atwater said. “It’s like stepping onto a ladder. Their parents are scared to death, asking themselves what happens when they’re gone. It’s really remarkable. Many of them now have their own apartments and cars.”
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