Facilitating employment opportunities and stabilizing family income is one avenue that can help preserve families and protect children. This year, Project Unity partnered with the Nina Heard Astin Charitable Trust to provide scholarship money for educational programs that do not qualify for other types of financial aid. Areas of study included Certified Nurse Assistant, Medication Aid, Physical Therapy and computers, among others. While some TFTS participants are still enrolled in classes and others will take additional classes to complete their educational plan, some evidence of success is already available.

•  One individual in an extremely low-income household of five went from being unemployed to making $8 an hour within two weeks of completion of a certificate program at Blinn College.

•  A single mom with a household size of three who also fell into the extremely low-income category was able to acquire work locally after completing a certificate program. She had been working out of town and while she is making the same amount of money as her previous job, she is saving money on gas now. She also expects to receive a raise of $1.75 per hour after 90 days on her new job.

•  Another single mom in an extremely low income household of three was expected to receive a raise from her $7.50 an hour job due to the completion of a certificate program at Blinn.

 

 

(Note: Letter from a client assisted with funds from the Astin Trust scholarship monies. Margaret Samarrippas is a Service Coordinator with the TFTS program.)