2017 Impact: Education and Jobs

Three pillars of programming form our wrap-around service. They are: health, education, and job training and placement. Earlier this week, we shared the impact of our health program in keeping our families healthy, enabling them to focus on work. Let's talk about our Education and Job Training and Placement Programs. 

Education and training are critical to building a qualified workforce. Our goal at Work is to place two heads of households from each family we serve into good, dignified jobs. To get there, we must prepare our families to be successful in the workplace. 

In Menelas, the highest grade completed by our adults is the 6th grade and our kids tend to drop out of school at around age 10 due to poverty. We start by ensuring our kids have access to a basic education all the way through high school graduation. Our adults are placed into our job training and placement programs with the goal of earning a living wage. 

This year, we increased our education enrollment to serve an additional 55 students for a total of 88 children. Due to the requirements of our programming, parents have become increasingly involved. The result: 80% of kids saw a bump in grades. Graduates like Shelove, Ericka, and Fritzlene now serve as tutors for our next generation of kids. Wadolph, Pascale, and Marckinley have taken on leadership roles within our Youth Program. The future of our workforce is bright.

While our kids are working hard to catch up and earn a high school diploma, our adults are building the skill sets necessary to earn a living. We piloted a suite of job services this year that not only build professional skills but also creates jobs. The results have been promising.

We’ll be honest, job training and placement are not easy to do. With an unemployment rate of 40-60% in the country, there are few jobs to fill. Turning our efforts to job creation is key and there's a real urgency to increase the pace of this work. We do this by supporting our families to build small businesses that contribute to a micro-economy in the community while we focus on a larger scale job creation effort that will place whole blocks of families into work. This larger effort will be a key focus in 2018. We look forward to sharing more. 

Key job numbers:

• 10 Jobs created

• 60% of households are making an income

• Preparation underway for our next 10 families members to enroll into our job programs

Key education numbers:

• 88 children enrolled

• 0 drop outs

• 80% raised their grades or maintained their high grades

Check out some of our family members' stories below. We have a model to success that we need to continue to grow to serve all 10,000 family members in the community. As we wrap up the year, we ask for your support in getting the job done in Menelas. Make a year-end contribution or support our education or job program directly. 

Wadolph

Wadolph was two years behind in school when we first met. As the oldest of five children, his younger siblings were prioritized for school once they reached school-age. He’s not only worked hard to catch up and raised his grades as a result, he’s also taken on leadership roles within our after school program. Wadolph is expected to graduate in two years, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for him.

Judeson

Judeson is one of our First Mile kids. He's four years behind and not currently in school, so there's some catching up to do. He's enrolled into our daily study session to work towards passing his upcoming school entrance exam. Wish him luck!

Djoudelie

Five-year old Djoudelie was able to start kindergarten on time due to the support of her 1:1 Sponsors Rachel and Dan. She loves to learn and attends our tutoring session to receive support after school to help her reach her potential.

Petion

A trained foreman, Petion has been able to earn a small income through construction projects he's worked on throughout the capital. In the new year, he will add a new skill to his resume - driving, so that the two jobs can complement each other to earn him a living wage to care for his family.

Carmitha

Carmitha, one of our first moms, has invested the income she's earned from being our resident chef to build a small neighborhood market in Menelas. through our Small Business Program, she's learning the skills to grow her business so that she and Marc Noel can graduate their family out of our program. She's selling sodas and snacks and working to grow her profits to continue to diversify her product list.

Stephanie

One of our newest moms, Stephanie, is building a small business as a meat vendor in the community. She's combining the start up investment from us with the business skills she's learning through our Small Business Program to grow it into a living wage income. Her biggest tasks is to learn to reinvest her income into inventory. We're confident she will get there.