We started out with the simple goal of providing appropriate business clothing for job seekers and have grown to provide services and resources that help our clients in retaining employment and advancing in the workplace. Services include: 1) provision of interview clothing; 2) job retention and advancement skills; and 3) linkages to other resources and community based agencies.

The Career Gear Alumni program promotes job-retention and career advancement. The participants’ are disadvantaged men who have recently transitioned from a job-training program into the workforce.

A participant is first referred to Career Gear at NAFFCCA through one of our partner programs located in the Washington D.C.and the surrounding Metropolitan area. The organizations include homeless shelters, welfare-to-work job training centers, and job training programs for ex-offenders, the disabled and recovering substance abusers. Each participant receives one suit for an interview; once he is employed he is encouraged to become a member of the Alumni program.

The Alumni program is designed to provide relevant information, peer support and networking opportunities that focus on promoting job-retention and career advancement in a supportive environment for men working at least 30 days. In this context, a “teachable moment” is created during the Alumni program that enhances other non-employment issues and needs such as budgeting and financial management, emotional coping skills, family and child support, balanced nutrition, all of which impact an individuals’ ability to remain employed.
 

Each regularly scheduled meeting consists of three key elements: an expert speaker leading a discussion, a networking period, and an interactive discussion of issues that impact the progress to self-sufficiency.
 

The program also offers added value by utilizing Career Gear’s greatest resource: clothing. During each session, alumni members’ receive ongoing donations of clothing with the intention that they will have amassed an entire working wardrobe upon completion of the program. This enables alumni to focus on saving their money and spending it on other necessities rather than on clothing.

The men noted that they see Career Gear as a “bridge” between their training programs and gainful employment. They spoke of the relationship (with Career Gear) as representing the start of a new chapter in their lives, rather than continuing with the agencies where they received their initial training/job readiness services. One alumni member said, “We receive a different kind of support here. I feel comfortable sharing issues that relate to where I am in my life right now, rather than where I was then.” Because of this unique relationship, Career Gear is in a strategic position to provide an effective framework for successful outcomes associated with the Alumni program.

Below are some of the organizations that NAFFCCA has supported through donations from Career Gear with:

• Convenant House Washington
• East of the River Clergy Police
• Community Empower Training Academy
• Progressive Life Center
• Gospel Rescue Ministries
• Project Empowerment
• National Association of Black Veterans
• Alliance of Concerned Men
• All Athletes Program - Ward 8
• House of Help City of Hope