The James Irvine Foundation has announced October grants totaling $12.29 million in the areas of career readiness, education, and civic engagement and empowerment.

Four of the grants were awarded through two new grantmaking areas at the foundation — career readiness and living-wage work, and "voice and influence." Grants awarded in those areas include $1 million over two years to LeadersUP to expand its capacity and efforts to improve the hiring and retention of young people in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area who are neither in school nor working; $3.4 million over three years to the National Employment Law Project to strengthen partnerships and policy initiatives aimed at improving labor and industry standards in California and promote greater economic security and opportunity for all workers in the state; $3 million over three years to Partnership for Working Families in support of its efforts to help low-wage immigrant workers; and $1.4 million over three years to Restaurant Opportunities Centers United in support of efforts to support low-wage restaurant workers and improve industry standards.

Other grants include $400,000 over two years to Mobilize the Immigrant Vote in support of the organization's efforts to close the gap in representation of low-income immigrants and new Americans of color in California's electorate; $600,000 to Asian Americans Advancing Justice — Los Angeles to help the organization strengthen immigrant rights across the state; $444,000 over two years to Stanford University to examine what school and district leaders in California are doing to advance integrated student supports for youth in Linked Learning pathway programs; and $400,000 to the Community Water Center to support efforts to increase the number of San Joaquin Valley residents engaged in local, regional, and state-level policy making processes aimed at ensuring the supply of safe, affordable drinking water.