JUMPSTART CAREER PROGRAM

The fastest way out of homelessness is through employment

The only way to truly break the cycle of homelessness is to make sure our clients have the tools they need to succeed in life.  

Our Jumpstart Career Program provides our clients the skills to secure employment and earn the income necessary to exit homelessness.

The program has three distinct components:

VOCATIONAL TRAINING

Home Health Aide Training  
We love collaborating. We also love the home health aide industry  -- one of the fastest growing in the country.  

Our Home Health Aide vocational training program is a partnership with Home Care Assistance of Southern Fairfield County, the local franchise of the Home Care Assistance network. The unique approach provides our clients with home health aide education, home health aide certifications, hands-on experience and employment.

What makes the program unique is that HCA of Southern Fairfield County hires our clients upon graduation and matches them with its customers as home health care professionals.

JUMPSTART EDUCATION

Many of our clients need help before they can get a job.  

Jumpstart Education provides it.

It's an innovative 13-week program that promotes self-sufficiency. What makes it unique -- and powerful -- is that we designed it specifically for the people we serve: extreme low-income, homeless adults.

Jumpstart Education provides clients with 13 workshops built around three core areas:

• Building the Foundation

• Getting to Work

• Staying Employed

Classes include money management, interviewing, understanding workplace expectations, conflict resolution, time management and much more.

JUMPSTART EMPLOYMENT

A key component of our Jumpstart Career Program is Jumpstart Employment: a free in-house employment agency that offers one-on-one counseling and job placement services.

Our staff works with clients to identify their skills and interests and find jobs that match them. In 2014 we further launched a Wage Growth Initiative that also helps them increase their earning capacity so they can remain stably and permanently housed. 

JUMPSTART CAREER PROGRAM WORKS

• In FY'18, we made 209 job placements, bringing our 8 year job placement total to 1,477

• Our average starting salary was $12.78/hour (27% over minimum wage)

• Each client worked an average of 32.0 hours per week