Interesting

This is interesting.

Data curated by FindTheCompany

Data curated by FindTheCompany

Crisis of hope

"The real crisis isn’t one night of young men in the street rioting. It’s something perhaps even more inexcusable — our own complacency at the systematic long-term denial of equal opportunity to people based on their skin color and ZIP code."

 

Nicholas Kristof, "When Baltimore Burned,"

The New York Times, April 29, 2015

Just in: Employment Training Results

[Just now I received the following report on the employment progress made by our most reent graduates from our "Build4Success" construction training program.  I must say, it is very gratifying! LJ]

 

Team-

On Wednesday, May 7^,  15 students graduated from the Build4Success training.  The goals for the class: enrollment 18; graduate 15 (80% of 18); placement 13 (85% of 15). The placement update is as follows:

6-employed by CLP/TrueBlue--they started on May 14^th at $12.00 per hour

2-left the program early for employment, one is employed by Garden Ridge Distribution Center at $9.50 per hour; one is employed by On Stage at $11.00 per hour

1-is waiting for the Clinic to perform his Department of Transportation (DOT)  physical for a truck driving job. We will provide you with salary as soon as he is processed.

4 more placements are need by the end of July to meet OAI requirements for funding for 2013-2014. We are very optimistic that in the next 30 days the other 4 will be employed.

These are awesome numbers for the week after graduation. Daniel and Joe worked as a team and did an outstanding job assisting the graduates with placement assistance. If you have any questions please let me know

 Patricia Smith-Harrington

Director
WorkPaths
CitySquare

Another success story to celebrate!

Ocell Donaldson was first introduced and referred to CitySquare by another agency and accessed services through the Resource Center with Neighbor Support Services case management.  He originally came to CitySquare in need of financial assistance, employment, transportation and food assistance.

      In January 2011, at intake, Ocell was unemployed and at risk of homelessness.  He received a notice to vacate from his apartment complex, was about to get evicted, and in desperate need of financial rental assistance and assistance with meeting his other basic needs.

      CitySquare's Neighbor Support Services provided Ocell with:  medium term rental assistance (for 9 months),

Intensive Case Management--working on setting and completing goals, provided hygiene and toiletries, bus passes, clothing vouchers to the CitySquare Thrift Store, money management/life skills and employment workshop classes.  He also received food from the pantry and community resources. 

      Today, Ocell Donaldson is stably housed and able to pay his rent each month.  Ocell is also employed full time at DART and has maintained employment at DART for the last 7 months and now receives full benefits. 

     

      Ocell was referred to CitySquare by West Dallas Multipurpose Center when they could no longer provide Ocell with rental assistance.  CitySquare at that time had Homeless Prevention Rapid-Re-Housing (HPRP) funding, which allowed CitySquare to provide rental assistance to neighbors for up to 18 months, if needed. This funding was designed to provide assistance for a longer period of time, thus allowing a neighbor to get back on their feet, prevent homelessness, and have neighbors keep and maintain their housing by achieving housing stably.  Ocell is the perfect example of what HPRP funding was designed to do. When I first met Ocell in January 2011, he reported that he had been laid off his job in Feb. 2009 and had been struggling to find employment ever since.  Ocell’s unemployment had ran out in Oct. 2010.  

      Unable to find employment Ocell had not been able to pay the rent on his 2-bedroom room apartment.  Ocell is an honest, hard-working neighbor and has even had a poem he wrote published.  He currently is working on writing an entire book of poetry.  

      During the time he received case management through Neighbor Support services, CitySquare was able to provide Ocell with financial assistance with rent and utilities.  We were able to get his landlord to move him into a one-bedroom apartment lowering his rent.  Ocell was dedicated to find employment and provided job search logs, indicating he was willing to do whatever it took to get employed and he was willing to work anywhere.  

       I mailed Ocell a daily bus pass every week so he could attend life skills/employment and money management classes and every week he showed up.  

       During intake, Ocell stated he couldn’t get food stamps and assistance with food.  I referred Ocell to the food stamp representatives downstairs at CitySquare’s food pantry and Ocell began receiving food stamps (SNAP) benefits shortly after.  He also shopped in CitySquare’s pantry to meet his additional food needs.  

      During this time, Ocell had met goals and gained employment, however, he had also experienced set-backs by getting laid off again by his new employer.   When the HPRP grant ended, Ocell had gained employment again allowing him to pay his rent when CitySquare no longer could.  Ocell came in my office a couple of weeks ago and reported that he no longer had that job but has been employed at DART for the last 7 months and receives full benefits, and access to transportation (courtesy of DART).  Ocell is stably housed and pays his rent on time every month.  Ocell is able to meet all his basic needs and more without assistance.  He will frequently stop by CitySquare to say hi and to thank CitySquare for our partnership with him.  During his most recent visit earlier this week, he informed me that his daughter is now enrolled and attending college.

Krystal Lotspeich

Social worker at CitySquare

CitySquare Work Paths: Build4Success

CitySquare WorkPaths: Drive2Success

WorkPaths: Path2Success

Workforce training at CitySquare

CitySquare’s WorkPaths is now enrolling for our 3 training programs. WorkPaths equips low-income adults with hard and soft skills through intensive CitySquare’s WorkPaths is now enrolling for our 3 training programs (please see attached flier for more detail) WorkPaths equips low-income adults with hard and soft skills through intensive pre-employment training programs designed to increase functional skill levels—enhancing employment ability to continue with additional training or education toward a living-wage job offering a career path and benefits.  All classes are at no out of pocket expense and DART transportation assistance is provided.

WorkPaths offers 3 training paths:

•Build4Success – 12-week program in commercial construction and environmental remediation made possible by partnership with OAI, Inc. Build4Success includes fundamentals in electrical, plumbing, welding, blueprint reading, and basic carpentry, as well as “workplace” life/soft skills such as positive communication in the workplace and how to be a great employee. OSHA 30, HAZWOWPER 40, Lead, Mold, Asbestos Worker Training and First Aid/CPR/AED are also part of coursework.

•Path2Success - a 10-week computer and business fundamentals program, is designed to equip participants with computer competencies in Microsoft Office's Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook and Explorer. The training is made possible in part by a grant from Microsoft and in partnership with Bill J. Priest/El Centro College.

After graduation, WorkPaths’ staff members continue to work with program graduates to resolve outstanding "life" issues hindering individuals from getting and keeping a good job. WorkPaths’ staff interfaces with employers of program graduates to monitor their progress and works with the employer to address any issues that may arise. Post graduate training continues through CareerPaths, a post-graduate program employing job matching, until successful employment is achieved in order to continue to strengthen employability skills.

•Drive2Success - 9 month long program designed to train individuals in different aspects of the auto body industry. If you are accepted into the program you will take classes such as Basic Metal Repair, Basic Refinishing, Color Analysis and Paint Matching. There are also classes in Collision Repair Welding, Damage Repair and a host of other classes designed to help you become an auto body professional.

Please feel free to call our offices at 214-823-4409.  Please forward to your email contacts and other service providers who could benefit from what we are now offering!!! 

CitySquare Work Paths "Build 4 Success" graduation. . .a crude snippet!

The video captures, in a very unprofessional manner, just a snippet of the most encouraging graduation exercises for CitySquare's most recent Build 4 Success class, a 14-week, 310 hour course in hard skills construction training.

This spring's class was a truly great one.

These graduates will be stepping up into living wage jobs thanks to the high-level training they received and of which they took full advantage!

What a great group!

And, again, forgive my crude video.  I just had to give you a glimpse.

As we move forward, employment training will occupy more and more of our time and resources.

Opportunity Center Update!

Check out the video below to get a feel for CitySquare's new Opportunity Center!

We're on course to open in late spring 2013.

Equally important is the "feel" you'll get of the surrounding neighborhood. The second video spotlights "the Porch" at the corner and the service station whose owners have been so kind to all of us and to our homeless friends and neighbors.

 

Progress continues

Work progresses on CitySquare's new "Opportunity Center" located at the corner of Malcolm X and I-30! Completion will be in late spring 2013.

Who really creates jobs?

Business leader, Nick Hanauer, presented the following speech at the TED conference.  His thesis may surprise you.  Hanauer, a very successful business owner/creator, argues that business owners don't create jobs.   He debunks the popular myth that tax breaks to the rich result in the creation of more jobs. 

But, if not them, then who does create jobs in our nation?  Watch his short address and react. 

[You may want to read Hanauer's essay in Bloomberg's Business Week here.  My thanks to Rev. Gerald Britt for putting me onto Hanauer!  Once I saw Hanauer's presentation, I remembered that TED refused to post it, deeming it "too controversial in the current political climate.]

From the air. . .

So, here's a "bird's eye view" of the goings on at CitySquare's new Opportunity Center at the corner of I-30 and Malcolm X Boulevard!

The blue trucks are drilling rigs brought in to drill 109 wells that extend 250 feet into the earth as a part of our very "green" geothermal H/VAC system.

Progress is fun to watch.

Want a piece of the action?

Lots of great naming opportunities at all fund levels.

Just give me a call or shoot me a note here!

The path to ending poverty. . .

Pictured below is the new sign identifying our new Opportunity Center site at the south east corner of I-30 and Malcolm X Boulevard in South Dallas/Fair Park! The two-sided sign announces our arrival!

[By the way:  check out the great, new company that Janet Morrison is creating at Believography.  Thanks to Janet for the photo!]

Rain not slowing us down!

This video was shot last Thursday morning after the all night rain. Sun reappeared and the guys from ConReal hit it again with water pumps and big Cats!

Oh, and congratulations Dan Hopkins and Happy Birthday!  You are now officially as old as rocks!

Working, but still poor. . .

Here at CitySquare, we've known the hard truth for a very long time.  Most of the low-income people with whom we work also work at a job, often more than one job. 

The problem is not work. 

The problem is pay and earning power. 

Consider the analysis of Bill Quigley that follows.  Take time to go to the complete text of the report.  Then, tell me what you think. 

Is it realistic to think that everyone who works should be able to sustain themselves by that work?

Working and Poor in the USA
Sunday 22 January 2012
By: Bill Quigley, The Center for Constitutional Rights

"Our nation, so richly endowed with natural resources and with a capable and industrious population, should be able to devise ways and means of insuring to all our able-bodied men and women, a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.” -Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1937

Millions of people in the US work and are still poor. Here are eight points that show why the US needs to dedicate itself to making work pay.

To read the entire report click here.

High impact, human need, great hope

From time to time in the New Year I intend to share the stories of the real people we encounter every day here at CitySquare. What follows here is the first:

A 36-year-old single mother with a 7- year- old daughter came to CitySquare in January 2011 in need of rental assistance. The woman and her daughter were previously homeless before moving into their apartment in September 2010.

In November 2010, she lost her job and fell behind on her rent. CitySquare provided rental and utility assistance through the Homeless Prevention Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) that we administer for the City of Dallas. The woman remained in the program and received intensive case management and financial assistance for 9 months.

During this time, the woman gained full time, permanent employment. She applied for and received childcare services and transportation vouchers). She also attended CitySquare’s Money Management Class and Employment Workshops. She opened a checking account and is now able to budget her money. In addition, we were able to change her electric provider to TXU (who waived her deposit) and enrolled her in Light-Up Texas. More recently, she moved into a cheaper and safer apartment.

She completed the HPRP program and is now stably housed. Last October she paid her rent on her own and still had over $400 in her bank account! As of December 2011, she continues to be employed and stably housed.

This woman worked hard and made significant achievements in becoming self-sufficient. She continues to meet with her case manager here at CitySquare, Krystal Lotspeich, to work and strive to meet her future goals.