MANHATTAN INSTITUTE SELECTS UPWARDLY GLOBAL AS 2004 RECIPIENT OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AWARD

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - October 19, 2004 - Upwardly Global, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization, and its Founder and Executive Director, Jane Leu, have been selected to receive the 2004 Manhattan Institute Award for Social Entrepreneurship. Upwardly Global was chosen from among 150 organizations for its innovation in helping unemployed and underemployed immigrant professionals find growth positions in leading U.S. companies.

"The award committee and I were impressed with the fact that Upwardly Global has, with limited resources, actually done a better job than government-funded programs to assist refugees and immigrants," says Howard Husock, Director of the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative. "Jane Leu, who has experience with publicly-funded refugee resettlement programs, is an inspirational social entrepreneur who saw that well-qualified, highly educated immigrants were being consigned to low-skill jobs by programs that were supposed to help them. Thanks to Jane, dozens of immigrant professionals are being placed in jobs in their fields of expertise. Both they and their employers are better off as a result. Upwardly Global's model accomplishes this for about $1000 less per placement than government-funded programs."

The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a New York-based think tank, gives its annual Social Entrepreneurship Award to leaders who have developed a new, sustainable action that successfully addresses a public problem and helps to improve the lives of individuals and American society.

With the award, Upwardly Global will receive a $10,000 prize from the Manhattan Institute. Upwardly Global has also been recognized for its social entrepreneurship by Ashoka: Innovators for the Public and by the Draper Richards Foundation, the largest grant to social entrepreneurs in the United States.

About Upwardly Global

Upwardly Global, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization, works to increase economic opportunities for unemployed and underemployed foreign-born professionals by helping them to rebuild their careers in the United States in their specific fields of expertise. Upwardly Global provides immigrant professionals, work-authorized permanent residents of the United States, with full career and placement services, including workshops on job search skills, assistance with re-credentialing, career counseling, and mentors from leading national companies. Upwardly Global serves as a resource for employers by connecting them with a highly qualified and diverse pool of jobseekers by offering training and tools to enable employers to more effectively recruit, assess, interview, and integrate immigrant professionals into their companies. For more information, visit www.upwardlyglobal.org.

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Contact:
Valerie Cunningham
650-814-7830
valerie@upwardlyglobal.org