LEARNING + EARNING = ACHIEVEMENT + POWER!

LEAP (Learning + Earning = Achievement + Power) is a vocational training & placement program that is breaking the cycle of poverty for families, enabling parents to provide a better quality for themselves and their children. Participants engage in a comprehensive administrative skills curriculum, just as they focus on the choices and life skills that will help them succeed. LEAP provides participants with skills needed to acquire and retain employment, and to flourish in any work environment. Instruction includes life and administrative skills, personal finance, parenting & stress management, and computer literacy, all followed by a full year of job coaching.

FCS created LEAP in 1996 in collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco’s Community Outreach Internship Program (COIP), and was the result of a discussion that began at a community meeting the previous year. When the University called a public meeting to outline their plans for expansion and jobs that would be created by that expansion, community members challenged the University to develop an entry-level training program that would benefit low-income families trapped by chronic poverty and joblessness and living in the communities into which UCSF planned to expand. FCS was quick to respond to the University’s request for ideas, and a partnership that would give birth to the LEAP program began to grow. During the past year, FCS has added new employer partners such as California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco International Airport and Monroe Personnel Services.

Within communities served by LEAP, unemployment rates are four times higher than the city average. Thirty-six percent of these adults over 25 years of age have no high school diploma. LEAP is designed to undercut these statistics, initiating the cycle out of poverty, and supporting the development of stronger communities.

The initial 10-week segment of LEAP takes place at FCS. Trainees arrive at 9:00 a.m. and put in a full, 8-hour day, spending an average of 35 hours per week in the classroom. The job preparation curriculum includes lessons on general work readiness, dressing for success, organization and time management. Other items include:

REALITIES: school & career planning, expectations, personal & professional goal-setting, coping with stress, money management, building strong support systems, parenting responsibilities, literacy, responsibility/accountability;

EXPLORATION: pregnancy and STD Prevention, overcoming barriers, career options, work readiness (applications, resumes, interviews, etc.), computers in the workplace, office etiquette, customer service, communication, conflict resolution; and

EVOLUTION/TURNING POINT: the job search, applying for jobs, other employment and/or educational training opportunities, UCSF workplace culture.

The LEAP curriculum culminates in the creation and presentation of each graduate’s 5-year goals achievement plan with personal, family and professional goals and the necessary plans and activities to attain those goals.

After participants complete the initial 10-week segment, they move to five-month internships or are hired by our employer partners. During internships, FCS provides job placement and retention assistance, as well as one-on-one and group support. Meanwhile, employee partners offer additional professional development and on-the-job mentoring. Participants' progress is monitored and evaluate as they build upon skill sets needed to flourish in the workplace.

Upon successful completion of their internships, LEAP participants move into employment positions appropriate to their skills and interest. An FCS vocational specialist helps ensure a good job placement fit. Program graduates enjoy health benefits, many for the first time in their lives, and typically earn $16- to $18- an-hour, with some earning as much as $25 hour!

LEAP empowers these deserving families with a living wage, financial stability and comprehensive health care benefits: touchstones along the pathway out of poverty! When a parent on welfare begins to earn a living wage, their family begins to thrive; their children begin to see going to college, home ownership, and finding a career of their own not as unknown quantities possible for someone else, but as real, tangible, achievable goals that they deserve. Financial empowerment is the foundation of our mission - Ending Poverty One Family at a Time.

For more information, contact LEAP Supervisor/Job Coach Kimberly Benberry-Jones 415-424-8868