The Center for Working Families provides services through a coaching program. Through the coaching program we created a community of experts that were then able to build relationships. These relationships then provide referrals. We created an environment where individuals were able to leverage resources available.

Our story is about the Rodriguez family. Mr. Rodriguez was a custodian earning minimum wage while Mrs. Rodriguez earned a few extra dollars caring for her three children and other kids in the neighborhood. Through the center they were able to change their lives. Mr. & Mrs. Rodriguez learned more about what they can do in the community. Now Mr. Rodriguez is a foreman and Mrs. Rodriguez has a family childcare network.

Back to Top

What is it like to be a front line staff person at the center?

We are a hospitality team. Our job is to make people feel welcome. By using some of the services offered at the Center for Working Families we are able to engage with people and change their lives. People who come here learned a lot and some now work here and their friends see them here.

This is a place you come if you are trying to succeed. The center is a savior. This is a place for survivors of domestic violence. We can help you get your life back together. Some people here started as a volunteer and now are employees. We help other people get good jobs and they help take care of each other.

Why do you do the work you do?

It is important to feel a part of a team. In the Center for Working Families, we want people feel like they belong. Everyone comes from different walks of life but we all have the center in common and that makes us family.

How do you evaluate yourselves?

We evaluate ourselves as a team and by how are the people we are helping doing. We have rewards and incentives for everyone involved.

What type of people do you collaborate with?

We collaborate with many partners to collaborate. They all are aligned with our mission.

Back to Top

Our story is from the perspective of an immigrant or refugee. The story starts with a man who is 40 years old. He came to the United States from Sierra Leone. He had to leave due to a political movement. When he first came to the United States, he had access to some refugee services. A few years later he went back to Sierra Leone and got his wife and started a family. The center helped him and his wife learn how to navigate their way in the community.

Next we will tell a story about Maria. She is an immigrant from Mexico. Her husband works two jobs. She came to the center through her church. At the center, she has found a place to help her take care of her children. The Center for Working Families helped her find money that was available to her as well as other services. She also found people who spoke her language. She also received financial counseling to help her take care of the family debt.

Our last story is about a husband, a pregnant wife and two older children that were smuggled into the United States to work in garment factory. Their church recommended them to go to the center. They told them not worry about being deported. The Center for Working Families helps all families. The family was surprised to find out they could wire money home. The Center also helped them find an immigration attorney to begin the documentation process.

The family also learned about the available to their new baby. The Center for Working Families helped the older kids develop leadership skills, The Center is also working the parents to establish a short and long-term employment plan and discussing how to bring more family members to the United States. The parents tell other people at the factory to come to the center for help, "The Center for Working Families will treat you right".

Back to To

Our team talked about how the Center for Working Families provides services for a single mom. Our story is about a single mom with children the ages of 4,6, and 9. She heard about this supportive center and asked where it was. When she got to the center, she was impressed by the support offered by the center. She immediately felt that this was a place where she could bring her kids. One day one of her kids got sick and the Center for Working Families took care of her child while she went to work.

At the center, she got career planning and her GED. Once she got her GED, she was able to attend a local community college. She was also able to make short and long-term goals. She cleared up her credit and get off welfare.

Her kids loved the center. They liked going there to playing with other kids. She could use the computer center to do her homework while her kids were within eyesight. The people at the Center for Working Families really looked after her needs. She felt they really listened to her.

Back to Top

Our story is about Mark Brown. Mark Brown had no job. People from the center even came to pick him up in van. When he went to the Center for Working Families he was amazed at how nice everyone was. He found out about all the services that people in his family could use too. He was able to get his GED. Then he got a job and now is going to a local college. The Center for Working Families is the first time he went someplace where people asked him what he and his family needed. The Center for Working Families helped develop a plan for the whole family.

Through the Center for Working Families he was able to open his first bank account. He is now saving for a car and his mom is saving for a home. At the Center you have people around who support you. He said, "When you have people who support you, start to believe them and it gets better."

Back to Top

In our exercise, we looked at the relationship we have with the people we serve. We talked a lot about values, assessment and delivery of services. We want to treat people as individuals not as cases. The Centers for Working Families provides many community-building events that bring people into the center. We want people to be able to enter the center from multiple channels.

Our story is about a girl who came in to the Center for Working Families to take an art class. She kept coming back and took all the art classes the center offered. Her mother, who did not speak English, brought her daughter to the classes. Eventually, the mother started to take classes at the same time her daughter had classes. The mother was able to find out more about what she qualified for and was able to augment their income through education. It was the community relationship that engaged them.

This is an example of someone who came into the center of one thing and got a lot more. You can come into a center for one thing and discovered much more by asking questions.

Back to Top

Our group looked at investors from the point of view of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the bank, and the local workforce. All three agreed to invest in the Center for Working Families because it met all of their needs. The investors came to a community that was diverse. The Center for Working Families provided many services that included a local retail financial bank, financial counseling and credit repair, GED programs, tax preparation, and operations support.

Our happy story involves a young married couple. Two years ago a young married couple (both 16 years old) came in with a new baby. The Center for Working Families helped them find housing, completed their GEDs, and entered a job-training program. Then they were able to purchase a duplex and now they live in the community and can pay their mortgage. They are thriving in the community. The center recently hired them as advisors.

Back to Top

This is a success story of how a non-custodial father used the Center for Working Families.

We looked at the non-custodial fathers. Our story is about a man who did time for drug dealing and lost custody of his two kids. Six months before his release, he was told to contact the Center for Working Families in his neighborhood. They provided him with support and guidance after he got out of prison. The people at the Center for Working Families were very caring and helped him make a new start in his community. He was able to find a job and to reconnect with his children.

Once began working with the center, they helped him navigate the system. The Center for Working Families also helped him get a temporary job and counseled him on how to get a more sustainable job and his GED. Through the center, he was able to arrange supervised time with his kids.

The Center for Working Families was set up so that he felt welcomed as soon as he entered. There were phones there since he didn’t have a phone. He was able to get involved with a counselor. He joined a church. And now he refers many of his friends to the Center for Working Families.

Back to Top