WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT ANNOUNCES NEW JOB PROGRAM

As unemployment continues to climb, Women’s Empowerment today announced it will add a second layer to its already successful job training program for homeless women. The new program will provide job assistance for program graduates.

“These women have worked too hard to fall through the gap because of a shaky economy,” said Lisa Culp, executive director and founder. “We are not going to wait for the economy to improve; we are going to address this problem today. We teach our graduates that they must take an active role in their own lives, not just wait for everything around them to change. We are doing the same.”

Women’s Empowerment provides a holistic eight-week job readiness program for homeless women. Once the women graduate from the program, the group provides ongoing help as needed. Yet, more graduates need assistance, as Women’s Empowerment’s job placement rate has dropped from 69 percent in 2008 to 60 percent in 2009 due to the lack of jobs and high unemployment in the region.

The new program will assist graduates of Women’s Empowerment with a two-pronged approach to help them find jobs. The group has hired a job developer who has direct relationships with employers and will work one-on-one to find a solid employment match from Women’s Empowerment’s pool of graduates. The organization is also working to build a social enterprise that will provide paid work opportunities for women in their program. Though there are local existing models that provide unpaid training, Women’s Empowerment believes payment is critical to helping women permanently rise from poverty.

The new enterprise will address the varied skills of women in the program, tied to growth industries such as healthcare, food service, administration and human services. A potential model could include serving dinner at a nonprofit shelter opening near Women’s Empowerment or replicating an existing nonprofit program in Los Angeles that is interested in bringing its program to the capital region.

“We’re working with homeless specialists, nonprofits, business leaders and former graduates to develop a model that is sustainable and fills a need in our community,” Culp said. “We will build on our successful job placement rate to ensure that no matter what happens with the economy, our graduates are ready to compete with the region’s candidates.”

Women’s Empowerment is looking for volunteers to serve on the program committee, as well as funding to help offset start-up costs. For more information, contact Amber Stott, director of community partnerships, at (916) 669-2307 or amber@womens-empowerment.org.

Women’s Empowerment is the only job-readiness program exclusively serving homeless women in the greater Sacramento region. The 2009 Nonprofit of the Year has graduated 662 homeless women and their 700 children, with 91 percent of them finding permanent housing and 60 percent finding jobs or enrolling in school, despite the current economy. This unique program combines self-esteem courses, job training, health classes and support services to help homeless women across diverse ages, races and cultures. For more information visit www.womens-empowerment.org.