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Fifty years after President Lyndon B. Johnson declared "War on Poverty", 15 percent of Americans still live in poverty. In Fort Worth, 15.5% of households live in poverty. Of those, over 164,000 are women and girls. Female-headed households represent 29% of all households in the Fort Worth area, but 54% of all households in poverty. Women living in poverty, many of whom may be in an abusive relationship, get caught in a cycle of domestic violence and poverty. The cycle continues because these women may not have the resources or skills to gain employment to support themselves and their families. The Ladder Alliance provides them with the skills to compete in today's technological job market.
The Ladder Alliance offers three different training programs that all help these women acquire marketable job skills or eliminate barriers to employment. The program that eliminates an employment barrier is the GED training. Even equipped with the skills the other two programs provide, without a GED, graduates are still very limited in the type of employment they can secure.
The other two programs provide students with computer skills which are essential skills in today's technological job market. A basic computer skills training program has been the fundamental training program since the beginning of the agency. However in 2014, through a needs assessment conducted with students, graduates and employers, a second level of skills training was identified.
A two year pilot called Professional Office Skills training was launched in the spring of 2015. The Rotary grant will help provide funding for the pilot program.
Students attend 400 hours of training consisting of 5 hours a day for 16 weeks. They will learn advanced computer skills, business communications and customer service skills. Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint are the programs that students will learn advanced features of. In business communications, the main focus is being able to write effectively. They will also cover how to make a presentation using PowerPoint.
The customer service portion of the program is being taught by instructors at Tarrant County College. This is a certified class and students will earn a certificate of completion from the college. These skills were an identified need of employers.
The last two weeks of classes will be spent at the Women's Center,another collaborative partner, where students will attend their Jobs NOW program. A very effective program teaching them job acquisition skills as well as students will receive intensive help with job placement. The Women's Center has an overall rate of 85% of getting people employed within 90 days of taking their class.
Project funds will be used to provide part of the cost for 3 women to attend the program. The two year pilot is projected to teach 100 students at a cost of about $150,000.
There are several ways that the members of Mid-Cities Pacesetters can be involved. The actual project has not been determined. One of these opportunities is to help sort donated clothing from JCPenney. A barrier women victims of domestic violence have is not having the appropriate clothes to wear to work. The Ladder Alliance has an onsite store where students earn points allowing them to "shop" in the store. JCPenney is a corporate sponsor of the store and make quarterly donations consisting of anywhere from 1,500 - 4,000 items. Sorting the clothes to go into the store takes quite a few volunteers and club members would be just a group that could sort one of these large donations.
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