In today’s rundown: Faith community leaders want the District to put more money towards green jobs.  | Local student are less than proficient in reading at a critical point and it could affect their futures.  | Donations to charities are on the rise in the first part of 2010.

Earlier this week we learned that the unemployment rate continued to climb in December, breaking records in Washington, DC for the number of jobless residents.  (DC had a 12.1 percent unemployment rate last month, the highest it’s been since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking unemployment numbers in 1976.)  While those numbers show our region is behind the national average (10 percent), there is one group that’s faring even worse.  The teen unemployment rate climbed to about 28 percent last fall, making young workers one of the hardest hit groups in the country.  And for minority teens from low-income families, the likelihood of finding a job is even lower.

As unemployment in Washington, D.C. reaches nearly 10 percent, and once booming industries shut down, more and more people struggle to find new opportunities to earn a living wage. 

Many of these individuals lack the skills, education, or training necessary to attain jobs that will allow them to become self-sufficient. 

Thank you to the Joint Economic Committee for drawing attention to rising unemployment among women-headed families in its new report, “Women in the Recession: Working Mothers Face High Rates of Unemployment.”

With so much public attention being paid to job loss among men, which, don’t get me wrong, is and should be of deep concern, the challenges for women have too often been overlooked.

Many of our readers and community members remember the powerful story of Laceiy and Sharan, and how their lives were changed by a construction job training program, Washington Area Women in the Trades (WAWIT), that is supported by The Women’s Foundation’s Stepping Stones Initiative.

Earlier today, I wrote about how The Women’s Foundation and The Women’s Funding Network were featured on a story on CNN about how investing in women is one the best strategies for fostering economic recovery.

Today was a bright and early, but exciting, morning for us at The Women’s Foundation!  We were up early to see Linda Butler, who spoke at our 2008 Leadership Luncheon, talk on CNN’s "American Morning" about how her life was changed by a jobs training program at Northern Virginia Family Services supported by The Women’s Foundation.  This morning at 7:30 a.m., she was part of a report on how women’s funds’ approach to economic growth for communities is a model during the tough economic climate in the U.S.

These are hard times for many, but especially for women-headed families.

Much has been written about the overall U.S. unemployment rate, which rose to 8.1 percent in February 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But did you know that unemployment among women-headed families was even higher at 10.3 percent?

Times are tough for most catering companies these days, but not for one of The Women’s Foundation’s Grantee Partners, Through the Kitchen Door, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.

Founded by Liesel Flashenberg, Through the Kitchen Door trains low-income women, at-risk teens and, more recently, domestic violence survivors, in catering skills, as well as the trick of affordable cooking that is still healthy, delicious and attractive to the eye.

As the economic stimulus package inches closer to Congressional approval and President Obama’s signature, many have focused on who is in and who is out – especially men versus women.

While predictable, this is not particularly productive.