Welcome to Day 2 of my 4th Annual Giving My Money Away festivities! To recap: I feature a charitable organization and guarantee them a minimum $25 donation; and then I add to that based on your comments, 50 cents apiece. Good times!
I have spent a lot of my life working with various populations that are categorized as “at risk.” At risk youth in an education setting, at risk adults struggling with addiction, depression, and crippling poverty; at risk individuals who are struggling to get back on their feet after periods of incarceration. It is easy enough to say that folks out to pull themselves together and get a job. But it is so, so hard to do that when you’re staring 100 different road blocks in the face. It’s hard to get a retail job if you read at a 4th grade level. It’s hard to land a janitorial position if you’ve never been on a job interview. It’s tough to get any on-the-books employment if you don’t have an address to put on your resume because you’re homeless.
The Cara Program is a proven, step-by-step program that prepares adults who have struggled with homeless, poverty, incarceration, and other challenges not just to enter but to succeed in the workforce. Human services agencies all over Chicago refer people to the program who they believe are ready to take on the serious work of becoming job-ready (including strict selection criteria that includes a phone interview and a drug test.) The Cara Program is probably best described in its website’s own words:
We don’t shield students from the realities they will face in the workplace; rather, we recreate the workplace here at The Cara Program. We deploy an experiential training approach that reaches beyond what we teach in the classroom and extends into the very fabric of every student’s experience at The Cara Program. We give them a manager, a work team, and responsibility. We make them accountable to themselves, accountable to their team, and accountable to the Cara community at large.
Students receive training in job readiness with classes like professionalism, customer satisfaction, computer skills, and interviewing competency. What makes the Cara Program so cool, and so effective, is that students simultaneously receive wrap around services from career and life coaches, who help students address their own individual barriers to job readiness (such as housing stability and access to child care).
Students have the opportunity to participate in a program-sponsored internship, and get job placement services with employer partners. This part is key, too: the program doesn’t just get students *a* job, it strives to get them a good, living-wage job:
Rather than finding ‘just any job’ for our students, The Cara Program commits to working with companies that offer a competitive combination of wages and benefits. We have formal standards in place for evaluating what qualifies as a ‘quality job’ (where quality is measured by exceeding a certain number of guaranteed hours worked, wage, availability of benefits and permanency in the position). As a result, our employed students’ current average starting wage is $11.09/ hour at an average of 39 hours/ week.
We partner with companies that find real value in working with The Cara Program to fill their entry-level positions. Companies typically tell us that Cara students are, on the whole, more motivated and more prepared for their entry-level positions than are non-Cara candidates.
The program’s numbers are startling for their success: 72% of program graduates not only land a job, but still have that job a year later. Anyone who has worked with adults struggling to become attached to the workforce will tell you: it’s job retention that is the kicker, and it is incredibly difficult to obtain. The Cara Program’s successes are truly remarkable. And on top of that, Charity Navigator gives The Cara Program a 4-star rating, reserved for those organizations that exemplify transparency, accountability, and sound financial practices.
I’m super excited to feature this organization, and hope that many of you will help me out with your comments!
I LOVE the sound of this. I love that they’re solving the practical problems.
I’m with Swistle. It’s really great that they’re looking at the micro. I’ll be matching this one – let me know what you end up giving.
As a teacher working in a Title 1 school in which many of my students LIVE situations like this – they’re too young to be in these situations themselves, however, it’s a part of their daily lives just the same. I support this 110%!
This sounds like a great organization that has a realistic, holistic approach to a big problem. Love the sound of it.
i’m so excited that you are continuing to support so many great and worthy causes
Great organization!
Another day, another great charity!
I adore you for doing this!
What a fantastic organization. I love that you do this. What a wonderful thing to teach Poppy as she grows up.
This sounds like a great organization; there are so many barriers for the working poor.
The organization’s approach to addressing this problem is really really impressive.
What an amazing organization!
What an amazing program. I wonder if there are similar ones in other cities? Off to look into it…
This program sounds really amazing. They’ve got another $25 from me.
Sounds awesome!! This is such a great way to celebrate Christmas week.
Sounds like they really are doing some awesome work! Thanks for featuring some really great organizations (and it’s only day 2!)
Another deserving charity.
What a great charity!
This is also a great cause!
What a great organization!
Holla!
I love this charity! Thank you for posting about it.
Wow, this sounds like an amazing program.
I’m so glad there is someone out there working on this.
What a great organization to support! We have a similar organization in our area and I think what they do is just fantastic.
This sounds like a great organization!
Pingback: Give Away Pseudostoops’ Money! | Not To Be Trusted With Knives
This is an awesome idea! And what a cool charity! Any idea if this program has (or is willing to) spread to other locations? I live in Vancouver, BC and homelessness is a big issue here.
Also, I wrote about this on my blog, so I hope some of my readers drop by and comment too!
Chappy Chanukah to you and yours. Don’t celebrate it? Alright, how about you add 50 cents to your donation instead! =)
Wonderful organization, wonderful you!
This sounds like a great organization. I think it’s great that you do this.
Hi I read this on my daughters web site it is awesome a great idea.
I love this blog series and I, again, think you are just as awesome as they come.
It sounds like this organization does excellent work.
What an incredible idea, and for such a worthy cause. Thanks!
Awesome, Katie! Cara is a great organization that really impacts the individuals and families of those that come through its doors.
Your blogging about organizations you’re jacked about is inspiring. Keep spreading the good! Big thanks!
so grateful to you for finding us, for your incredibly kind words and for your enthusiasm for this mission. many thanks and much love for what you are doing,
Maria Kim
Thanks for your wonderful and inventive support!
Love that you’re supporting Cara!
Hear, hear! Cheers to The Cara Program for transforming lives. Cheers to pseudostoops for spreading the word on their great work and “giving your money away.” Happy Holidays!
I love programs that create self-sufficient, confident individuals. It sounds like a program that assists those that truly deserve a chance.
Well said! It’s easy to give advice when we have so much. It’s easy to give and to help but so many don’t think to do so. I’m so glad this program is offering such realistic help to those who really want it. Keep going Cara Program!!
Go, take a tour, attend Motivations and watch the lives as they find strength, hope and confidence. These people do amazing work!
Great idea and great program, thanks for sharing!
I worked for The Cara Program for several years, and they are the real deal! Incredible people, incredible mission, incredible results. Cara is not just a program but rather a way of life. Years later, I still feel connected. The impact of the program on our community speaks for itself. I’m proud to know TCP!
Wow! Many, many thanks for featuring The Cara Program on your 4th Annual Giving My Money Away festivities. What a great way to bring in the holidays! Our students are truly motivated to break the cycle of poverty for themselves and their families, and with supporters like all of you, I know they can do it! Many thanks for the props, fundraising and PR! And, as we say at The Cara Program in morning Motivations’ “That’s my friend!” So, thanks for being a new friend to The Cara Program.
Julie Hoffmann
Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and support!
I hope that your genuine and motivating ideas of spreading the power of giving, will inspire and motivate many others to do the same. At The Cara Program, we see every day the affect that one individual’s words can have on a community. So, thank you for using your voice to change individuals lives and inspiring others to do the same.
Have a very happy holiday season full of joy, laughter and the spirit of giving!
Sounds like a great organization!
This one sounds like a winner!
Ilike this idea– keep it going:)