Community Giving

Operation Fresh Start empowers young adults on a path to self-sufficiency through education, mentoring, and employment training. One way it does this is through its training academies, which pay Dane County residents ages 18-24 to work with industry professionals as they gain hands-on experience in their chosen fields.

A $300,000 grant from Ascendium supports Operation Fresh Start in bolstering these efforts. The new-and-improved training will consist of traditional trades with expansion into several aspects of natural resource management, as dictated by the need for workers in emerging green industries.

Created by the Urban League of Greater Madison, the Black Business Hub will be a four-story, 76,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art center of commerce and entrepreneurism located on Madison’s southside. At present, only a miniscule percentage of Dane County businesses with more than one employee are Black owned. The Hub aims to change that by giving Black entrepreneurs the space and financial resources to grow.

Ascendium’s $2.5 million donation moves the project closer to its $26 million goal. Over the next few years, the Hub will house at least 100 Black-owned businesses, from startups to expansions. It will also offer training, coaching, loans, grants, technical help and networking opportunities to business owners and entrepreneurs.

A project of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dane County, the McKenzie Regional Workforce Center aims to fill the need for skilled trade laborers while empowering all young people, especially those in need, to reach their full potential. Through its Careerforce Build Up training program, the Center will teach students the hard skills they’ll need to pursue family-sustaining careers as plumbers, carpenters, electricians, HVAC technicians and more. Students will also learn the soft skills, such as emotional support, they’ll need as they transition to the workplace.

Ascendium’s $1.5 million donation supports the McKenzie Regional Workforce Center Endowment. This sustainable resource will allow the facility to train the workforce of the future for years to come.

Centro Hispano of Dane County has served the Madison community for almost 40 years, providing vital youth, family, education, employment and other programming to the Latino population. Having outgrown its current space, Centro is building a new 25,000 square-foot facility that will allow it to serve an additional 1,000 community members each year and add more programming, including a bilingual nursing career path.

Inspired by Centro’s success in creating direct pathways to improved education and employment, Ascendium contributed $2.5 million to its new facility and expanded programming. The new facility is slated to open in late 2023.