Cleveland-based KeyBank and the entrepreneur-support nonprofit JumpStart Inc. are investing in Akron with funding for two of the city's prominent nonprofit groups so that they can launch a project to address unemployment and underemployment among minorities.

KeyBank's Business Boost & Build program, supported by JumpStart, has awarded $120,000 to fund a collaboration between the Akron Urban League and ConxusNEO, a Summit County workforce development organization. With the money, the two will launch the Summit Workforce Development Project to address unemployment and underemployment among minorities in and around Akron.

The strategy is for the Urban League to provide training and readiness education for job seekers, while ConxusNEO identifies high-demand, high-wage job openings. Together, they hope to connect those openings with local job seekers, who will be better prepared by the program to fill them.

"This award from JumpStart and the KeyBank Business Boost & Build program will provide us with crucial resources to support software coding and other skill-specific training to improve the lives of unemployed and underemployed jobseekers in Summit County," said Akron Urban League president and CEO Sadie Winlock in a statement. "Together, with ConxusNEO and existing partnerships, we will make a meaningful and measurable impact in the community."

Like any bank, KeyBank wants to see its chief markets succeed economically, and it's hoping the award will help the Akron area in that regard.

"At KeyBank, we have made it our mission to create thriving communities and we believe strong workforce development programs like the Summit Workforce Development Project are core to that mission," said Tim Burke, KeyBank Eastern Ohio Market president, in a statement.

The Business Boost & Build program was set up in 2017 and is funded through a grant from the KeyBank Foundation to JumpStart. The program operates in Ohio and upstate New York.