Programming

Transitional Employment

Roca is piloting a number of employment and training programs, ranging from pre-employment literacy to partnerships with post-secondary certificate training and job placement. Inspired by leading social enterprises such as Peter Young Industries, Delancey Street Foundation, and Community Employment Opportunities (CEO), Roca has borrowed best practices from each and combined them with business creation, earned income strategies, workforce development, youth development, and a powerful culture that actively engages young people in a transformational process for personal growth and work readiness.

Today our transitional employment enterprises enable a young people to work on their education in addition to earning a paycheck, paying taxes, and mastering some real skills. Circle Catering, started by a former Roca participant and now led by a parent from the Roca community, has five transitional employment slots and will generate over $75,000 in revenue during this pilot experimental year. In March 2006, Roca started the KEY Project (Keep Empowering Yourself) and provided 14 work slots in clearning, painting, and maintenance.

Both projects served approximately 120 young people and have early positive results (Please Note: It will take two years to fully understand the results): a third of whom are placed successfully in unsubsidized work; over a third are still working or in a re-entry phase for transitional employment; and the remaining are engaged with their Roca Youth Worker.

Contacts: Joey Kotright-Clark, Director of Education and Employment Programming, (617)889-5210 x266 or Joey_Kotright@rocainc.com, Heriberto Sanchez, KEY Project Coordinator, (617)889-5210 x200 or Heriberto_Sanchez@rocainc.com, Kendra Sanon, Circle Catering Work Project Assistant, (617)889-5210 x207 or Kendra_Sanon@rocainc.com.