Capital Region Cares Capital Region Cares 2018-2019 | Page 89

Women's
Empowerment
Ending homelessness one woman —
one family — at a time
H
omelessness increased 47 percent
from 2016 to 2017 in Sacramento
County, according to California
Housing Partnership Corporation in
cooperation with Sacramento Housing
Alliance. The County Office of Education
reports more than 13,000 school-
age children currently experience
homelessness.
Women’s Empowerment (WE) fights
those staggering statistics. “Women
and children comprise the homeless
population’s largest and fastest growing
segment,” says Lisa Culp, Executive
Director. WE educates and empowers
homeless women with skills and
confidence to get jobs, create healthy
lifestyles, and regain safe homes for
themselves and their children.
WE offers nine-week job-readiness
classes four times per year. “Eighty percent
of our graduates are getting jobs, which
is incredible, but we never forget the
other 20 percent,” says Culp. “It is with
these women in mind that we launched
our social enterprise, The Get A Job Kit,
a small business with a powerful mission.
The Get A Job Kit hires graduates to
produce and sell our all-in-one career
organizer to school districts, colleges
and organizations assisting jobseekers
nationwide. With current work experience
on their resume and the confidence to
excel as an employee these graduates are
now securing jobs.”
With the newly redesigned Get A Job
Kit, based on Women’s Empowerment’s
proven and successful curriculum, sales
year- to- date have tripled those of 2017.
And all proceeds are reinvested into the
social enterprise.
Combating Sacramento’s shocking
9.4 percent housing cost increase (the
national average is 3 percent), WE has
partnered with the Institute for Real
Estate Management, Sacramento to
develop REstart, a five-week paid property
management training program. The
WOMENS-EMPOWERMENT.ORG
training also connects women to property
owners with positions that provide jobs
and housing on the property they manage.
“We empower women to succeed,”
says Culp, “but we can’t do it without the
business community offering employment
opportunities and internships – so women
can break the cycle of homelessness for
themselves and their children.”
profile generously sponsored by
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