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How "Cohorts" Change Lives, Where Other Programs Fail

How “Cohorts” Change Lives, Where Other Programs Fail

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Archetypical American heroes are often loners:  The single sheriff shoots it out with a band of bad guys, the scrappy rags-to-riches business person climbs that ladder solo, the musician whose best friend is a bottle eventually makes it big.  These figures have some admirable traits, but in real life, going it alone is more often a formula for failure, not success.  No matter how talented you…

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"Open Hiring" the "Unemployable" -- A Truly Terrific Business Move

“Open Hiring” the “Unemployable” — A Truly Terrific Business Move

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I’ve been away from the site for a while, so I have dozens of pent-up post ideas.  But I just ran across this story and it is too compelling, provocative, engaging  and inpiring to put aside. Greyston Bakery in Younkers, NY hires entry level people without looking at anything about their skills or background.  By putting money into training instead of rigorous hiring processes, they invest in…

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Shut Down the Fear/Paralysis Connection

Shut Down the Fear/Paralysis Connection

Everyone faces problems, and lack of money can bring problems that are big and frightening.  I highly recommend this video.  Gerry Valentine describes an approach for overcoming challenges by changing the impact those challenges have on you.

I think he does a great job of capturing one of the key things that makes some people resilient and successful despite adversity.  I won’t say more about it…

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The critical skills needed to get/do a middle-wage job

The critical skills needed to get/do a middle-wage job

I recently coached a young woman (let’s call her Norma) developing her resume.  Norma is working as a Nanny/Assistant for a family.  She thought of her job as a series of tasks.  I suggested that she describe it in terms of the level of responsibility that she had, which was considerable.  We also started to describe the work outcomes that showed positive traits that would be assets in any job:…

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Great Roadmap and Tools for Any Community that Wants to Move More People into Good Jobs

Great Roadmap and Tools for Any Community that Wants to Move More People into Good Jobs

Coming from a business background, I was getting frustrated about how inefficient we are at getting people who need jobs connected to good training and then to the jobs that companies are trying to fill.   Ideally, it would work like a well-designed factory:

Local companies would tell training/education groups what entry-level and mid-level jobs are going to be in demand .

The trainers/educators…

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Terrific use of Wealth will Change 70,000 families per year

Terrific use of Wealth will Change 70,000 families per year

There is so much to love about the story in this article, A New Push to Get Low-Income Students Through College – NYTimes.com,  today:

Wealth, thoughtfully used to make the US stronger through helping low-income families:  Michael Bloomberg (whose net worth is  33 Billion) is funding an initiative to holistically help highly capable students go to college.

More than money:  Advice,…

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Scorn, Very Misplaced

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You’re inspired. You have just seen Erin Brockovich, or The Pursuit of Happyness: Empathy propels an unemployed single mother into a tireless, and successful quest for justice…A poor man, armed with love of his son and self-respect, overcomes crushing hardships. There are countless stories of perseverance, courage and ultimate triumph by low-income men, women, boys and girls — and reading or…

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The Best Investment you can make in American Children

The Best Investment you can make in American Children

Where should you invest if you want to make the biggest impact on children, the future of the country?  In their mothers.

There are so many ways to improve the lives of children:

Improving their schools

Changing their nutritional habits

Increasing access to healthcare

Reducing violence in and around their homes

But mothers have the biggest impact on children by far.   Help the mother be…

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Volunteers Make a Difference and Get Happier

Your Action Will Make a Difference

“Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one person can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills, misery, ignorance, and violence. Few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. And in the total of all those acts will be written the history of a generation.”

― Robert F. Kennedy

No Heroics are required!  Very…

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Fantastic Frugal Foodie Shows How to Eat on $4/day

Leanne Brown is a humble heroine.  As her final project for her Masters in Food Studies at NYU she wrote a cookbook for those who live on SNAP/food stamps or a similarly limited budget.  Just seeing that immense need and filling it would have been enough.  She went on to offer  that cookbook for FREE to anyone who wants to download it.  More recently she went through the trouble of running…

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Avoid the "Motherhood Wage Penalty"

71 % of all mothers with children at home work and more than half of them are the only breadwinner for the family; and as soon as people know they are mothers those women are being hired less and being paid significantly less only because they are mothers.  This hidden inequality jeopardizes children and needs to be addressed.

See below for the surprising size and variations of this Penalty.…

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$500,000 available for great ideas that help poor mothers

  Ok, The money is available for tech-enabled innovations that benefit anyone in the Latino community.  But, hey, you know my stance:  A dollar spent on a low-income mother is the best investment that you can make in this country.

So start innovating.  Encourage others to go for it.

This is real money that is being put up by VotoLatino.  For more details on the VL Innovators Challenge, click here.

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Everything You Need to Know about Making the World Better Today, You Can Learn From Burgerville

Years ago, at a Sustainable Brands conference,  I heard a very memorable talk by an executive from Burgerville, a burger restaurant chain in Washington and Oregon.  Long before sustainability was hot, Burgerville had built up a thriving business through a commitment to serving fresh food, buying locally, treating employees well and being a valuable member of their communities.  At the time, I…

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Everyone is Likely to be Rich and Poor

It turns out that Americans move up and down the income scale a lot.

According to an article, “From Rags to Riches to Rags” by  Mark R. Rank (a professor of social welfare at Washington University):

54 percent of Americans will experience poverty or near poverty at least once between the ages of 25 and 60

56 percent will find themselves in the top 10 percent

Rather than talking about the 1…

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Quote: No Great Mother, No Light "My mother was the making of me. She was so true and so sure of me, I felt that I had someone to live for - someone I must not disappoint.

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Cultural Capital: 2 Ways to Remove Barriers to College

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Even if money were no object, low-income students would still not end up at colleges that fit their talents and potential.

Of course, ” a mind is a terrible thing to waste’; but is equally sad to think that the deep sacrifices that low-income parents make to give their children a better life are going under-rewarded.

I ran across two different takes on the missing “cultural capital” that…

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Stevie Wonders' Advantages “The two big advantages I had at birth were to have been born wise and to have been born in poverty.”