Mission

The STRIVE philosophy is grounded in a commitment to find meaningful jobs for the chronically under-served and unemployed. Our mission is to place the unemployed in jobs and to keep them there, to assist others in adopting our model, and to encourage effective employment policies and practices globally.

The Model

STRIVE's supportive services are created to eliminate the individual and societal obstacles which predominantly impede the unemployed from succeeding in the workplace — and in their lives overall. To empower individuals and families in realizing self-determination and self-sufficiency, no element is more critical than creating opportunities for gainful employment with a living wage salary.

The founding principle behind STRIVE is to address, head-on, the adverse factors that impact communities and the potential success of their residents — including homelessness, substance abuse, crime, teen pregnancy, domestic violence, and the lack of health and child care. People living in poor neighborhoods often face isolation, lacking personal networks, role models and access to job information. Self-defeating attitudes, spotty work histories, and poor self-presentation skills often compound these circumstances.

The STRIVE Core program succeeds by virtue of its rigor and discipline. In this economic climate, it takes grit and determination to prepare people for the demands of the hard-to-break-into workplace. Given the lack of social services available, many of our participants have never had an opportunity to be exposed to expected workplace demeanor, much less instruction in fundamental employment etiquette. They have also received virtually no support in attending to the personal problems that have interfered with any possibilities of success in the workplace. While instilling fundamental job skills, the STRIVE approach is a holistic one — primarily focused on soft-skills training, and the cultural and behavioral issues that are related to attaining — and retaining — meaningful employment.

History

	STRIVE's first home in the basement community room of the James Weldon Johnson Housing Project in East Harlem.

STRIVE is a recognized leader in securing jobs for the chronically unemployed, supporting them in taking the critical first step towards achieving self-reliance. Our job-readiness training program combines attitudinal training with fundamental job skills, and long-term participant follow-up. Graduate job-retention rates surpass those achieved by governmental workforce programs and other agencies.

First introduced in New York City in 1984, our program model has been widely adopted in partnership with affiliated non-profit organizations throughout the U.S. and beyond. STRIVE serves the most neglected, yet able, unemployed and under-served people — the formerly incarcerated, public-assistance dependent, homeless, and recovering drug abusers.

Participants are guided from a smile and a handshake through job placement and into a variety of subsequent supportive services. As they make the life-changing transition into self-reliance, program graduates begin to gain the respect of their families and their communities. And with newly-born self-respect coupled with active support systems, STRIVE graduates take incremental steps towards true responsibility and achievement.

STRIVE is an IRS registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency.