AN­DREA PEREZ-SOBERS

Se­nior Re­porter

The Citi Foun­da­tion to­day is­sued a Re­quest for Pro­pos­als (RFP) for its 2025 Glob­al In­no­va­tion Chal­lenge and 50 com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions will re­ceive US$500,000 each in grant sup­port for in­no­v­a­tive em­ploy­ment so­lu­tions.

In a state­ment, Citi Foun­da­tion said de­spite re­cent progress, young peo­ple glob­al­ly con­tin­ue to ex­pe­ri­ence chal­lenges in their pur­suit of em­ploy­ment, in­clud­ing skills mis­match and gain­ing ac­cess to qual­i­ty jobs.

Ac­cord­ing to the In­ter­na­tion­al Labour Or­ga­ni­za­tion, 65 mil­lion young peo­ple glob­al­ly are un­em­ployed.

Mitchell De Sil­va, Citi Coun­try Of­fi­cer (CCO) of Citi T&T said “Ac­cess to job op­por­tu­ni­ties re­mains a chal­lenge for many young peo­ple. It is vi­tal­ly im­por­tant to pro­vide tools that al­low them to suc­cess­ful­ly in­te­grate in­to the work­force. Through this new Chal­lenge, Citi Foun­da­tion reaf­firms our com­mit­ment to youth and to projects that gen­er­ate a re­al im­pact on em­ploy­a­bil­i­ty.”

The 2025 Glob­al In­no­va­tion Chal­lenge builds on Citi and the Citi Foun­da­tion’s long-stand­ing

in­vest­ment in youth, in­clud­ing:

-The Citi Foun­da­tion in­vest­ed more than US$300 mil­lion over the last decade alone in pro­grams that sup­port­ed over one mil­lion young peo­ple in ex­pand­ing their skills,

ex­pe­ri­ence and net­works through its Path­ways to Progress ini­tia­tive.

-Citi pro­vides bank­ing ser­vices for clients ex­pand­ing ac­cess to high-qual­i­ty ed­u­ca­tion and youth en­tre­pre­neur­ship op­por­tu­ni­ties and in­vests in so­lu­tions for ear­ly ca­reer pro­fes­sion­als. Citi has al­so fi­nanced and fa­cil­i­tat­ed ac­cess to ed­u­ca­tion in emerg­ing mar­kets through so­cial fi­nance bonds and oth­er trans­ac­tions.

-Citi em­ploy­ees vol­un­teer year-round, lend­ing their tal­ent and ex­per­tise in sup­port of youth em­ploy­a­bil­i­ty, in­clud­ing en­gag­ing in fi­nan­cial ed­u­ca­tion and ca­reer de­vel­op­ment work­shops and men­tor­ing and coach­ing youth.

Ed Skyler, Citi Head of En­ter­prise Ser­vice Pub­lic Af­fairs and Chair of the Citi Foun­da­tion. “From skills train­ing to job place­ment pro­gram­ming and more, Citi and the Citi Foun­da­tion have long in­vest­ed in scal­able so­lu­tions to ac­cel­er­ate youth em­ploy­a­bil­i­ty. But it re­mains a per­sis­tent and ur­gent mat­ter, and we know there is more work to be done.”

“Ap­ply­ing the Glob­al In­no­va­tion Chal­lenge mod­el to this is­sue rep­re­sents the next step in our fund­ing jour­ney and our con­tin­ued in­vest­ment in the young peo­ple poised to build thriv­ing and re­silient com­mu­ni­ties.”