Pay it Forward, Colorado | Workforce Development that Works

 EDUCATION & TRAINING PATHWAYS | A Gary Community VENTURES grantmaking & INVESTING STRATEGY
 

Samantha Kallsen is blunt about the role Encore Electric has played in her life.

“I wouldn’t be where I’m at today — I probably wouldn’t even be alive — if it wasn’t for this company,” she said.

The joy Kallsen has felt finding a career and a calling as Encore’s Director of Virtual Design, Construction and Prefabrication is one that too few Coloradans can understand. As of 2025, one in four Coloradans were working jobs that don’t allow them to earn a living wage.

At the same time, Encore’s Talent Acquisition Manager Bryan Garver will tell you, Colorado businesses like Encore have struggles finding the skilled talent they need to fill vital roles in our larger communities.

“Our electricians are in demand, and we really can’t hire enough of them,” Garver said. “Our economy and society rely on them. When you think about all the things that we try to do within our communities — make the world a better place, make things cheap and easier for people, make the environment better — our electricians help us do that.”

The need to cultivate great talent isn’t lost on Colorado’s government and education leaders. And we’ve reached this troubling status quo as a state not for lack of trying on either entity’s part. Quite the opposite, in fact. Considering the following:

• The state spends more than $650M on workforce training programs for adults each year, designed to help people get better jobs. But of the 300+ programs that receive funding, fewer than 10% can demonstrate wage gains for their participants.
• Colorado’s public higher education institutions have awarded more than 74,000 Bachelors degrees and 89,000 short-term credentials in the last ten years that unfortunately did not lead to a $50,000 wage within 5 years for graduates. This amounts to $10B in combined tuition and scholarships on credentials that left students short of what they need to live in Colorado.

When learners and workers complete training and education programs that don’t meaningfully improve their access to economic opportunity, the consequence isn’t just unfilled jobs for employers and low wages for families. It’s student debt for thousands of Coloradans. It’s something Hanna Skandera, a former government and education leader, understands all too well.

“I believe that education is quintessential for upward mobility, but we had too narrow a definition of what education was. Right now, the cost of a four-year degree is killing us, and the status quo is not sustainable,” said Skandera, now President & CEO of the Daniels Fund. “The good news is that this forces us to become creative and say, ‘What is really needed for this moment in time?'”

Gary Community Ventures believe one of those creative solutions is the Colorado Pay it Forward Fund (COPFF), which imagines a public workforce development system funded not on the basis of enrollment, but on results.    

We know there are successful job training programs that are producing the kinds of results Coloradans need. They include organizations like ActivateWork, where the average graduates increases their wages by 120% through a 15-week bootcamp, and The Master’s Apprentice, which has helped more than 1,000 Colorado graduates begin their careers in the trades, including an average of 14 a year at Encore Electric alone.

One of those new electricians in EJ Herrera, who completed his apprenticeship program at Encore with support from Kallsen.

Pay it Forward, Colorado is a short film centered around this story.

It’s also a story about bold partners coming together to imagine new workforce and development pathways. Managed by our partners at Social Finance and co-funded by a cohort of charitable foundations, COPIFF is a charitable revolving loan fund that offers interest-free, outcomes-based loans that are repaid only when learners and employers are successful. In this way, we remove barriers to the best programs, spend each dollar twice compared to traditional grants, and expand the ecosystem of pathways shown to lead to good jobs.

The Pay It Forward Fund model is not only growing in Colorado, but is now being adopted to other states. Learn more below.

CO.creators

CO.creator | Meg VanderLaan, Encore Electric

CO.creator | Bruce Wilmsen, Daniels Fund 

Bruce Wilmsen joined the Daniels Fund in May 2014. He manages the Daniels Fund’s media relationships, release of news, community partnerships, digital communications, and social media. Before his position at the Daniels Fund, Bruce served as Vice President, Client & Marketing Strategy for RBC Capital Markets. In that role, he was responsible for business-to-business digital, print, collateral, and event marketing. A skilled filmmakers himself, Bruce played a key role in the post-production process of this film, helping us align story and mission.

CO.creator | Helen Young Hayes, ActivateWork

Helen is the Founder and CEO of ActivateWork, whose mission is to transform lives by training, launching and coaching the next generation of technology superstars. She is a 20-year veteran of the financial industry, having served as portfolio manager of the flagship Janus Worldwide Fund, Janus Overseas Fund, and related assets totaling approximately $50 billion at Janus Capital. Since founding ActivateWork, she has been named one of the Denver Business Journal’s Outstanding Women in Business, a Girl Scout Scouts of Colorado Woman of Distinction, GlobalMindEd’s Inclusive Leader Award of the Year, and the Colorado Technology Association’s Talent Champion of the Year. She is also a member of the Colorado Forum, the International Women’s Forum, and the AEI Leadership Network.  

Director | Algernon Felice Jr, Gary Community Ventures

Algernon has been recognized nationally and regionally as an award-winning producer, having won a Chicago/Midwest Emmy® for writing, producing and directing a campaign that explores the humble roots of a historic business. He has also won multiple Wisconsin Broadcasters Association awards for his work in brand development and television production, and was featured on CNN for his filmmaking and cultural storytelling.

Writer & Producer | Will C. Holden, Gary Community Ventures

Will is a writer, producer and storyteller with deep marketing and communications experience. He’s been awarded by the Emmys, Associated Press and Society of Professional Journalists for his reporting and The Telly Awards, Public Relations Society of America and AMA Colorado for his creative work. He teaches a CU-Boulder digital storytelling course, serves on the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs and sits on the boards of directors at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art and Truce Studios.

Associate Producer | Julie Stone, Gary Community Ventures

Julie Stone is the Director of Family Economic Mobility at Gary, focused on exploring and activating self-sufficiency and wealth-building strategies for Colorado families. Her early career included a host of roles at her family’s truck stop in rural Wyoming. She has since completed degrees in economics and environmental policy and served as a Social Policy Analyst for Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal, external affairs lead and Interim Executive Director with Teach For America Colorado, and a consultant on data analytics and integration, human capital allocation, healthcare design and labor negotiations for a portfolio of our nation’s largest employers. 

Related Stories

• PEOPLE – Meet Ednium: The Alumni Collective

• PEOPLE – Meet Alonso Jurado | Ednium

• PEOPLE – Meet Kathe Traore | Ednium

• PEOPLE – Meet Richard Maez | Ednium
• PEOPLE – Meet TeRay Esquibel | Ednium

• ORGANIZATIONS – The Savings Collaborative

• ORGANIZATIONS – Community Economic Defense Project
• ORGANIZATIONS – The Urban Land Conservancy

• SHORT FILMS – Black Wealth Cannot Wait | Dearfield Fund

• SHORT FILMS – Wealth Through Ownership | Apis & Heritage

• SHORT FILMS – The Creation of Home | Dearfield Fund