JOB OPPORTUNITIES FOR LOW INCOME INDIVIDUALS PROGRAM
FY 1998
GRANTEES PROJECT SUMMARIES
Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI) was awarded a JOLI grant. The three-year project will support the growth of New England 800 Company, a custom inbound-call center. It will provide expansion capital to the company and funds for leadership training, customized skills training, peer-support, and transitional support services to the 75 participants. The project aims to close the gap between the skills needed by a company in the swiftly changing information technology sector and the abilities offered by Maines most troubled and hardest-to-place TANF recipients. CEI will work closely with regional service providers to recruit, train, hire and monitor the progress of all low income individual at the targeted company. This project will create 100 new jobs, and 10 internal promotions during the next three years. The grant amount is $500,000 and the cost per job is $6,667. Charles E. Morris is the project principal evaluator.
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Arizona Council for Economic Conversion (ACEC) was awarded a JOLI grant to provide self-employment opportunities, including a worker-owned cooperative business, to economical disadvantage individuals in Douglas, Arizona. The project proposes 18 months of business development assistance, funding for equipment, start-up expenses, and a limited amount of working capital for a worker-owned contract sewing business. The goal of the project is to teach participants how to develop a business, manage resources, meet production deadlines, and cooperate to reach the means of creating wealth. The organization of an employee-owned contract sewing cooperative will provide 40 full-time jobs with living wages, health benefits, accrual of vacation and sick leave, and ownership position in the sewing company. An additional 40 employment opportunities will be created for individuals in child care, transportation, catering, and other micro and home-based enterprises. The grant amount is $350,000 and the cost per job is $4,862. Organizations Unlimited will conduct evaluation of the project.
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Shorebank Neighborhood Institute (SNI) received a JOLI grant to establish Shore Staffing Works, an employment agency that will serve as a point of entry into the job market for TANF and low-income individuals. SNI works in low-income communities with residents and business to build relationships with employers who express the need to find good workers and residents who seek work. Currently, SNI has a contract with the State of Illinois, Jobs Advantage Program, to provide permanent employment for 252 TANF recipients; and with the Earnfare program to provide employment for 110 food stamp recipients over a period of two years. Under the JOLI project, individuals will be employees of Shore Staffing Works, placed on assignment with Chicago area companies. While workers earn income and gained valuable exposure to the workplace, Shore Staffing Works mentors will provide and link them with support to help resolve short-term crises, maintain their motivation and create long-term plans for self sufficiency. The goal of this project is to place 1100 individuals into permanent jobs. The grant amount is $500,000 and the cost per job is $455. Rainbow Research will conduct the project evaluation.
Women Enterprises of Baltimore (WEB) received a JOLI grant to implement its extensive 15-month microenterprise program to 143 low-income women within the City of Baltimore. The project comprises 10 components that make up the work plan and training design. It will begin with a business-skills training course, followed by one year of training to include: case management, mentoring, community networking, resource sharing professional business consultations, access to business start-up capital, Internet training and counseling, government certificate and contract procurement. WEB will confront the social and health problems via its case management component that links program participants to other agencies. WEB will address the barriers that affect employment retention among the welfare population with training, mentoring, and networks to community services, all of which lead to increased income resulting in self sufficiency for the entrepreneur. This project will create 100 new jobs. The grant amount is $500,000 and the cost per job is $5,000. The project evaluator is Lisa Servon, Ph.D.
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Covenant House New York/Under 21, Inc. received a grant for The Family Day Care training program. The program will recruit and train individuals within three Community Resource Center sites (the Highbridge section of the Bronx, the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, and the Harlem section of Manhattan). Target clients will be young parents who are currently TANF recipients or individuals living below the poverty line. Applicants will be screened to determined their appropriateness for becoming a child care provider and their level of motivation to operate their own business. They will then participate in an 8-week training program that includes orientation, class workshops, and internships at one of Covenant House New Yorks Infant Toddler Centers. They will also receive technical assistance on setting up their own business, completing the Bureau of Day Care registration application and making their home safe and child-ready. The program will create 20 new full time permanent Family Day Care sites each year for a total of 60 jobs. The private businesses will provide 60 to 100 new day care slots in their neighborhood. The grant amount is $250,000 and the cost-per-job is approximately $4,166.67.
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Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council was awarded a JOLI grant for the proposed expansion of its Renewable Energy Device Manufacturing and Marketing Project. This project, established for research and development and fabrication of renewable energy devices, has been operating for the past nine years supported by funds from OCS, the State and the County. The expansion will provide for the manufacturing of thermoelectric generators for household use. The project will create 40 jobs, enabling unskilled workers to be trained as welders, assemblers, pipe fitters, sheet metal workers or testers, with sound knowledge of fabrication and operation of the energy devises. The grant amount is $200,000 and the cost per job is $8,950. Qualified third part evaluators will be selected from among the faculty of the University of Hawaii and Hawaii Community College.
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Materials for the Future Foundation (MFF) received a JOLI grant to implement its Sustainable Opportunities Deconstruction Project. The project will create a value-adding wood remanufacturing and storage facility that will support community economic development projects that use deconstruction to create employment and training opportunities for low-income individuals. The project will expand local salvaged lumber markets, directly supporting the long-term sustainability of the deconstruction and the jobs created by these enterprises. It will also provide support to local craft-based employment and training reuse enterprises through capital investments of materials, access to mill equipment at a reduced rate and shared product marketing. The facility will also help to generate employment opportunities in value-added manufacturing enterprises and will directly support the creation and sustainability of 75 new positions. The grantee has established partnerships with the Oakland Private Industry Council and the Alameda County Social Services Agency to get referrals and give qualified applicants an array of support services. The grant amount is $499,277 and the cost per job is $6,657. The third party evaluator has not been identified.
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Operation Helping Hand. Inc. (OHH) received a JOLI grant to start the My House Moving Company, (MHMC) a micro enterprise business expansion. A project of the Career Initiative Center (CIC), MHMC will serve as a pilot program for the business incubator CIC while undergoing rehabilitation. The project, in a Southwest Detroit empowerment zone, will provide low-rate moving services to the formerly homeless, low-income individuals and families and TANF recipients. It will also solicit market-rate business to ensure it is financial self-sufficiency. The project will provide all participants the opportunity to develop employability skills in a real world environment and for some the opportunity to own their own business. There will be paid internships and franchise development training. All candidates who successfully complete the franchise development training will be eligible to apply for a micro loan to cover start-up costs. Local financial institutions will provide support and technical assistance and three years follow-up consultations will also be available through the SBDC. HUD will provide funding for training in year two and three and CIC will provide support services for those who need it. The project will create 32 new jobs and four new businesses during the grant period. The grant amount is $225,000 and the cost per job/business is $10,176. Dr. Melanie Hwalek will serve as the evaluation director for the project.
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Jewish Vocational Services (JVS) was awarded a grant to expand its micro enterprise services through a Small Business Mentorship Program. The program is targeted and individually tailored to individuals with low incomes who want to start their own business and owners of existing business needing technical assistance to grow their business and create jobs. For the first group, JVS will provide mentor assistance, supplemented with staff support that help participants start 35 businesses that supplement income from conventional employment. Participants who are unemployed upon enrollment will receive job readiness training and job placement assistance. The second group consists of two types of business owners. There are those who own microenterprises with long-term potential to create 1-2 jobs and those with small to mid-size business experiencing rapid growth that have the potential to create 5-10 jobs. JVS would match these business owners with mentors who have experienced with business expansion. Participating business will commit to first consider hiring individuals with low-incomes. In return, businesses will receive mentors, assistance from JVS staff, tax credits and a wage subsidy from the state for hiring workers receiving transitional assistance. JVS proposes to create a total of 100 new jobs or self employment opportunities for individuals with low income. The grant amount is $350,000 and the cost per job is $5,000. The lead evaluator on this project will be Robert Brandwein.
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The Youth and Family Center received a grant for the business expansion project, Workstation. In collaboration with Smart Management, Inc., the grantee will expand Bettercare Home Healthcare and Step-by-Step Childcare, two successful minority-owned businesses into the St. Louis Enterprise Community with a commitment to train and hire low-income residents. The project will develop an individual education plan for each participant and provided the necessary training to meet the requirements of the home healthcare and childcare business. To ensure success of the project Life Skills training and support services are also provided. The project is designed to provide 84 permanent full-time jobs. The grant award is $500,000 and the cost per job is $5,954. Mary Boyd, Ph.D. is the third party evaluator.
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Washington County Council on Economic Development was awarded a grant to facilitate the expansion of Pennsylvania Transformer Technology, a transformer manufacturer. The council will lend $400,000 to Pennsylvania Transformer to increase its production. TANF recipients will be trained and prepared to secure employment with the transformer company. Comprehensive case management will be provided to enhance participants transition to work. The project will create 257 new jobs of which TANF recipients will fill 80. The grant amount is $500,000 and the cost per job is $1,945. The project third party evaluator is Gordon Lewis, Ph.D.