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employment services Typically lacking marketable vocational skills and recent or steady work experience, homeless and low-income men and women face multiple barriers as they seek to enter the workforce and rebuild their lives. Inspiration Corporation addresses this need with three initiatives. The Employment Project |
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| The Employment Project helps individuals who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless identify career options, make choices, and ultimately gain stability through employment. The Employment Project offers career counseling, employment preparation and financial literacy training, free voice mail, tuition subsidies, networking opportunities with businesses and professionals, and job placement | and retention support to homeless and low-income adults who want to become employed. Volunteers provide additional assistance and support to program participants who are engaged in job searches or enrolled in GED classes or other educational programs. | |
| Cafe Too |
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| Cafe Too is a 13-week restaurant skills training program designed to provide students with the tools they need to secure and retain entry-level jobs in the food service industry. The intensive training focuses on basic culinary skills and concepts, following and taking direction, teamwork, food sanitation and safety, and restaurant service. An employment specialist helps students develop job-readiness skills, and each student is tested to receive a City of Chicago food service sanitation management certificate. Trainees gain hands-on experience preparing and serving meals to the paying public at our Cafe Too restaurant during the internship period of the program. The internship gives students real-life work experience and, when successfully completed, a reference for future employers. Job placement assistance expedites their entry into employment, where students can immediately apply and develop their newly acquired skills. Finally, post-placement services ensure that graduates are meeting employers’ expectations, receiving assistance in dealing with conflicts, and accessing retention incentives such as education opportunities. | “As soon as I graduated and had a food handling and sanitation license, I was hired the same day by a catering company. Within a month, I had two more job offers. I was employable immediately. Inspiration Corporation went out of their way to help me. It means so much to me to have been given a second chance, and I want to help others get a second chance.”
—Ann, Cafe Too Shift Manager, 2003 Cafe Too Graduate |
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| Community Voice Mail | ||
| Community Voice Mail provides an individual phone number and free message retrieval services to as many as 1,200 homeless and phoneless Chicagoans at one time, providing them with a lifeline to potential jobs, homes, healthcare, family, and services. Within minutes using a touch-tone phone, workers at more than 45 human services agencies
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across Chicago can start clients on Community Voice Mail with their own private 7-digit number, a personal greeting and a secure access code with which they can retrieve messages. Inspiration Corporation is the Chicago-area partner of the national Community Voice Mail Federation. |
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Employment Services
The Employment Project
Cafe Too
Community Voice Mail
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Inspiration Corporation is a proud member of the United Way of Metro Chicago. |
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The Inspiration Corporation Meals program is proud to be sponsored by the Sara Lee Foundation. |
Download the Notice of Uses and Disclosures.
©2008 Inspiration Corporation. All Rights Reserved.