On the last day of this year’s Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) America meeting, President Clinton announced that, when fully funded and implemented, over 50 initiatives will create 124,000 jobs, provide approximately 364,000 Americans with job training and support entrepreneurship with $265 million in investments or loans. CGI America was held June 29-30, 2011, in Chicago.
“At CGI America, we have announced 51 commitments that will improve the lives of 2.7 million people in the United States,” President Clinton said. “The individuals and organizations that have launched new programs this week are proving that we can create jobs and foster economic growth here in America. I hope that their efforts will inspire others to take action to revitalize their own communities.”
The goal of CGI meetings are for participants to make Commitments to Action. The commitment is not a financial contribution or pledge to CGI, but rather a plan that identifies a methodology or system that the participants (organization or individual) will make to launch a program that improves lives and communities. At this inaugural CGI America meeting, most commitments have focused on addressing the challenges of job creation and economic growth in the U.S. More than 750 leaders from businesses, nonprofits and all levels of government participated with the aim to generate new ideas for jump-starting economic growth and identifying existing programs that can be replicated and scaled.
Some initiative highlights:
Mobilizing for 20,000 Excellent New STEM Teachers. Inspired by President Obama’s call for 100,000 new science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) teachers by 2021, Carnegie Corporation of New York and its partners will create a funding pool of $20 million and invite relevant programs to apply.
Caring Across Generations: Changing the Way We Care. The National Domestic Workers Alliance and Domestic Workers United commit to implementing the Caring Across Generations campaign, with a key goal of creating two million new or improved jobs in direct home care, including care for the elderly and persons with disabilities, over five years.
Kiva City. In late 2010, Visa donated $1 million to support Kiva’s work of raising awareness among U.S. small businesses of the availability of microloans as a tool to grow their businesses, create jobs and support economic recovery. After extensive research, the partnership is launching a new program that aims to double the $1.7 million in U.S. loan volume over the next two years that Kiva has already achieved since its inception in the U.S. in 2009.
Funding the Democratization of Innovation. FLOODGATE fund commits to providing $200 million of first venture financing to over 100 new companies resulting in over 10,000 new jobs created in the United States over the next 10 years. In addition to financing these companies, FLOODGATE commits to educate and mentor 500 future undergraduate and graduate science engineering student entrepreneurs over this same time period. New job creation is fundamentally tied to taking early and risky bets in unproven entrepreneurships and businesses.
