Syracuse will use a $3 million grant to boost its technology industry and provide job training for city residents.

JPMorgan Chase awarded the grant as part of the Advancing Cities‘ initiative that provides financial resources to cities struggling to achieve economic growth. The granted money will be used for the Syracuse Surge plan Mayor Ben Walsh announced in January, said Dominic Robinson, the vice president of economic inclusion at CenterState Corporate for Economic Opportunity.

The Surge includes a series of projects to revitalize the city’s economy and expand its tech industry. Several organizations worked together on the granted application, including the city of Syracuse, Onondaga County, Syracuse University, Le Moyne College and the Allyn Family Foundation.

Meg O’Connell, the executive director of the Allyn Family Foundation, said that Syracuse currently has thousands of unfilled jobs, many of which are in the technology field. A key portion of the granted money will be used to create educational opportunities for city residents so they can be hired for these jobs, she said. 

“We can have a lot of growth in Syracuse in the drone industry and the tech industry, but that growth and that economic opportunity is only going to be truly transformational for the city of Syracuse if it’s an opportunity for all,” O’Connell said.

Syracuse will also use the money to attract and grow technology business, as well as to increase diversity in the city’s technological fields, according to the JPMorgan Chase website.

As part of the grant, Le Moyne College will receive funding for its Erie 21 initiative, William Brower, vice president of communications and advancement at Le Moyne, said. The initiative works with the Syracuse City School District, SU and local businesses to provide Syracuse residents in poverty with a path to middle-class tech jobs, he added.

Syracuse was awarded the grant along with four other cities: Chicago, Miami, San Diego and Louisville, Kentucky. CenterState CEO submitted a joint application for the grant with the city. The collaboration between multiple organizations in the application process helped Syracuse to be selected, Robinson said.

When Syracuse was announced as a finalist in the grant competition, those involved in the application piled into the president’s suite at Le Moyne for a video call with JPMorgan, Chase Brower said.  

“Every stakeholder who participated in creating our grant application was seated at the table,” Brower said. “They found that incredibly compelling, that we cared that much and we were partnering that closely.”

Syracuse’s relatively small size also likely contributed to JPMorgan Chase’s decision because large grants can have a greater impact in smaller cities, O’Connell said. In cities like Syracuse, change can be made much more quickly and its impacts can be more wide-reaching than in larger cities, she said.

Robinson said the $3 million from the grant is “only a drop in the bucket” in the grand scheme of Syracuse’s economic development. However, it will allow Syracuse to develop and test economic strategies to help gain more financial resources in the future, he said.

Published on April 24, 2019 at 7:31 pm

Contact Gillian: gifollet@syr.edu