JVA and its employees have a long history of support for Denver Public Schools (DPS), so whenever we are able to write a successful grant for the district, there are a lot of smiles in our office on the edge of Sloan’s Lake. When the grant is for $7 million, some of those smiles are large and long lasting.

That was the case in 2014, when the United States Departments of Labor and Education made such an award to DPS, with the money earmarked for counseling services and programs designed to help prepare high school students for college or career-track jobs after graduation. DPS was one of only six agencies in the country to receive the maximum $7 million award.

“I love working with DPS,” grant writer Lisa Cirincione said. “We want to do anything we can do to make a difference in the lives of children. When you understand that 72 percent of DPS students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, you also understand that these are kids who will benefit from that little something extra that grants like this make possible. The district expects to provide additional counseling services and career-track programs to more than 15,000 students because of this grant. That matters. It matters to the district. It matters to the kids and their families. It matters to JVA, and it matters to me.”

Eight Denver high schools will benefit from the Youth CareerConnect grant, which will expand career and technical education programs focused on: engineering, health and medicine, digital careers, finance, information technology, energy and manufacturing.

The district says the grant will expand programs that provide opportunities for students to participate in a paid internship or job shadow and complete a project that demonstrates how they applied the skills and knowledge learned in the classroom to their workplace-based learning experience. DPS will also work with workforce investment partners to provide career fairs and summer industry academies.

“This is about getting our students ready for college and equipping them with the skills necessary to pursue high-skill college and career tracks,” DPS superintendent Tom Boasberg said in a press release. “Our schools are committed to ensuring each of our students has the skills and knowledge to achieve their career and college goals.”

Shortly after the grant was announced, the DPS Foundation said it had raised an additional $2.3 million from such community partners as colleges and area businesses to support the work being funded by the federal grant, making a total of $9.3 million available to fund these programs.