About ACP

    American Community Partnerships (ACP) is a national, 501(c)(3), nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, DC and governed by a Board of Directors, comprised of industry and union leaders, members of other nonprofit organizations and private sector companies.

     Founded in 1995, American Community Partnerships has provided living-wage career opportunities and economic and community development benefits to well over 5,000 low-income persons nationwide. ACP has developed partnerships in over 35 cities and states, from Alaska to Puerto Rico and from San Diego to Boston. In each region, ACP’s partnerships reflect the goals of the particular individuals and

institutions committed to helping provide career, housing, and economic development opportunities, opportunities designed pragmatically to serve the industries involved and which lift families, many of whom are accustomed to multigenerational poverty, out of despair.

     Traditionally, partners include: employers, labor unions, elected and appointed government representatives, community and faith-based organizations and individuals whose approaches to civic responsibility reflect ACP’s aims. Partnerships examples include ACP’s initiative in the Delaware Valley region of Southeast Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey, an effort focused on assisting the national, statewide, and regional effort to improve the quality of life for Camden, the nation’s poorest city. ACP’s partners include the Delaware River Port Authority, South Jersey Port Corp., Housing Authority of the City of Camden, United Building Trades of South Jersey, Cooper Hospital, the City and County of Camden and their elected representatives, The Concerned Black Clergy of Camden, Community Planning and Advocacy Council of Camden, Broadlands Financial Corp, the US departments of Labor and Health and Human Services, The NJ Economic Development Agency, local contractor associations and their constituent contractors, and many, many more. This partnership developed over a ten-year effort in Camden and has focused both on assisting Camden residents find careers (over 800 to date) in the construction, culinary and healthcare industries and on the development of a career training academy located on a 2.8 acre site that has been “mothballed” since 1989.

      Similarly, ACP is equally proud of its affiliate, the Alaska Works Partnership, whose statewide efforts since 1998 have resulted in the training of hundreds of native and other low-income Alaskans and the development of that State’s exclusive training facilities for natural gas pipeline entry-level workers. AWP is currently building that facility on a 40-acre tract provided by the City of Fairbanks with funds provided by the State and the US Department of Labor. Other partnerships developed by ACP (e.g., Philadelphia, St. Louis) remain in operation over 10 years after their “seeding” by ACP. 

 

Graduation Speaker for Camden, New Jersey in 2005