A typical STRIVE graduate

For those unfamiliar with STRIVE, we are a three week employability skills training program. In short, we help people get to work. The United Way of Greater New Haven has been a huge supporter of the agency, and their support is driectly responsible for allowing STRIVE to continuiously provide the services that we do for our community.

I get asked to write stories about our graduates all the time, and for this blog I was trying to think of a graduate that really embodied what STRIVE is all about, and I couldn’t come up with anyone. Not that we don’t have success stories, we have plenty of those, but my problem was that we don’t have a “typical” STRIVE graduate. The criteria for acceptance into our program is fairly simple:

1. The legal right to work in the US.


2. Age 17 or older.


3. An honest desire to go to work.

That’s it. If you meet those three criteria, we’ll work with you. So, I decided to do a top ten list, in no particular order, of recent graduates to show everyone the diversity of the people we serve. All names have been changed, but the stories are all true.

1. Tony: Tony came to STRIVE while living in the Emmanuel Baptist Emergency Shelter. When he first came here, he literally only had the clothes on his back. Our staff was able to provide him with appropriate STRIVE attire, and he showed up early every day and was the model of professionalism in the class. Almost immediately after finishing the program, he was one of the first hires at the new Stop & Shop on Whalley Ave. in New Haven. Since then, he left that position, and is working two other jobs and no longer resides at the shelter.


2. Doug: Doug was employed by Wal-Mart for longer than he cared to remember. With a daughter in college, and his overnight stocking job not cutting it, he was looking for a change. While working nights, he came to STRIVE during the days and worked with his church in the evenings. To this day, I still don’t know when he found time to sleep. Today, Doug has homeland security clearance and works guarding several government locations in New York.


3. Alex: When Alex came to STRIVE, he had never worked before. In his late twenties, with an extensive criminal record, he was ready to turn his life around but didn’t know what he was doing trying to find work. A few weeks after graduating he got his first job with a maintenance group cleaning industrial sites. Today, he makes more annually than everyone who works for STRIVE, which is good, as of last week he is the proud father of triplets.


4. Mohammed: Mohammed came to us from one of our community partners, IRIS (Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services). Before coming to the United States, he worked as a doctor in Baghdad. A doctor who in a new country, can’t find any work. With the experience at STRIVE, and the combined efforts of the job developers here and at IRIS, we were able to help him land a position at Yale-New Haven Hospital.


5. Emily: Emily came to us after finishing her BS in nursing, and after a year of trying to find a position in her field. She had the book smarts and the experience for the positions she was going for, but lacked what STRIVE teaches. All she needed was the ability to sell herself, a skill not taught in college. Learning what she did here, she was able to successfully sell herself and is once again a full time practicing nurse and paying down her hefty student loans.


6. Deb: Deb is a graduate from one of our more recent classes. She is currently working 15 hours a week for $9 an hour. Why is this a success story? Deb was released from an eight-year prison sentence into a sober house two weeks before coming to STRIVE. This is what we call a first step, a chance for her to build a positive work reference. Literally, as I type this I can hear her on the phone still looking for full time work. Since STRIVE follows up with every graduate for two years, I know I’ll be writing more great things about Deb in the years to come.


7. Yolanda: Before coming to STRIVE, Yolanda had worked for twenty-five years at the same employer. Twenty-five years! With the economy being what it is, she was let go from her position and needed to get back into the workforce. Having no need to job search for most of her life, she didn’t know where to look and decided to give STRIVE a try. She took the job search skills we gave her and was employed within two weeks of graduating.


8. Jenice: Jenice recently moved to New Haven from New York, and didn’t know where to start with looking for a job. Quite possibly the nicest person you will ever meet, she graduated and immediately began volunteering at STRIVE. She single handedly created a group of former graduates to act as ambassadors for the agency. The group meets regularly and has become an integral part of the outreach and recruitment efforts of the agency. She is currently working full time during the day, but on her days off she still comes to STRIVE and helps out where we need it.


9. Larry: Larry is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He came to STRIVE as a result of our partnership with the Veteran’s Administration in West Haven. Young and eager, he took the tools we gave him and found a job during the last week at STRIVE. Since graduating, he is now on job number four and on the lookout for number five.


10. Steve: Steve came to us at the ripe old age of 18, a young man with a criminal background who had never worked before. During the second week of the program, he went out to lunch at Buffalo Wild Wing’s for 25-cent wing day. Using what he learned up tot that point, he took the initiative to walk up to the manager and sell himself. He was asked to come back later that day to fill out the application, and was hired on the spot. His only request was that he not start until he was able to complete the STRIVE workshop.

There are literally hundreds more. Since we came to New Haven in 2000, we have graduated over 1,300 people and I have been personally been involved with the agency for over 1,000 of them. I can’t go anywhere without running into a member of the STRIVE family, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.