Sampler

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A Los Angeles Social Enterprise Sampler

Here are some of the social enterprises doing good work in the downtown section of los Angeles and beyond:

CHRYSALIS

Chrysalis was founded in 1984 by a 22-year-old volunteer who used his own money to open the agency. Originally started as a food and clothing distribution center for downtown’s homeless population, the agency refocused its efforts and began identifying employment opportunities for its clients in 1986. Chrysalis specializes in job development programs for the homeless and chronically unemployed. Through a variety of innovative job-training and placement services, Chrysalis offers disadvantaged individuals the tools they need to become self-sufficient.

Labor Connection is Chrysalis’ highly successful full-service staffing agency. Labor Connection contracts with local businesses that need temporary and permanent employees and hires economically disadvantaged people to fill these positions,primarily entry-level jobs in maintenance, janitorial, light-industry, clerical and data entry. Temporary jobs serve as an ideal transition into the private-sector job market, providing income, work experience, job references, and an opportunity for new workers to socially readjust to a work environment.

Since its inception in 1991, Labor Connection has provided meaningful work experience for over 1,300 economically disadvantaged workers. During this time, Labor Connection has billed over 500,000 hours of work and has paid its workforce over $3 million in wages. Current annual enterprise revenues for Labor Connection are $1,100,000.

ERAS CENTER

ERAS Center was established in 1980 to serve “at-risk” youth from throughout Los Angeles County. ERAS is a model educational resource, service, and training center dedicated to ensuring that disadvantaged children, youth, and families have access to the resources they require to lead healthy and productive lives. ERAS provides personalized support to children and young adults that are challenged by poverty, abuse, and emotional, developmental, learning, or chronic medical disabilities. ERAS offers these youth the education, training, experiences, and opportunities needed to achieve their personal potential and maximize their capabilities.

The Farm Store is a restaurant, market and catering business owned and operated by the ERAS Center. It was established in 1991 to provide essential vocational training and employment opportunities for ERAS’ “at-risk” population in an actual public work environment. The Farm Store provides vocational training for 30 post-secondary students each week.

It is the Farm Store’s goal to ensure that each student learn a special skill, in order to have the confidence and tools to find work in the community. The enterprise also provides the vocational education, training, and health and environmental curriculum for 140 students each week in grades 7 through 12. The Farm Store enables the ERAS Center to provide the real life experience and teach the work related skills that are essential to their clients achieving independence.

The ERAS Center Farm Store is currently generating almost $150,000 per year in annual revenues.

NEW DIRECTIONS

New Directions is a nonprofit organization that provides free comprehensive, rehabilitative services to homeless veterans including food, clothing, long-term transitional housing, a structured substance abuse program, life skills training, vocational training, employment opportunities, and permanent housing placement. New Directions operates three residential facilities, two small homes for women, and a large, 156-bed regional center for men.

New Directions manages two businesses that provide on-the-job training. The first business, established in 1995, provides handy-worker, carpentry, and construction services to homeowners, local businesses, and property management companies. New Directions offers its client-employees courses on-site conducted by LAUSD and L.A. Trade-Tech in computer skills, plumbing, and other handy-worker tasks. This focus on skill development has enabled New Directions clients to gain higher-paying, more stable jobs when they return to the private work force.

New Directions also recently established a culinary training program that offers contract food/meal preparation to local food businesses and non-profit organizations. The enterprise’s first significant contract is with the local Meals On Wheels Program and involves daily production of ready-to-eat meals that are distributed to the elderly and AIDS patient shut-ins throughout the County.

Projected annual enterprise revenues for New Directions are $374,000.

PUEBLO NUEVO DEVELOPMENT

Pueblo Nuevo Development (PND), founded in 1992, is a family of organizations dedicated to reducing poverty and improving the quality of life for families in the MacArthur Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Pueblo Nuevo is a mission of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. PND seeks out projects that offer local residents an ownership stake in the economic revitalization of their neighborhood. PND believes that financial independence enables people to contribute to their community rather than dependent on it. PND believes that individuals and communities function best when they are actively engaged in self-development.

Motivated by a self-help philosophy of community development, PND has been instrumental in helping local, low-income residents establish two businesses that provide them with employment opportunities: a nonprofit thrift store and a janitorial workers’ cooperative. The Pueblo Nuevo thrift shop currently generates approximately $15,000 per month in gross revenues. This enterprise has created jobs for ten employees who receive market-based wages plus health benefits. An expansion strategy is currently being implemented that projects increasing revenues to $20,000 to $25,000 per month over the next twelve months with a corresponding increase in employment opportunities.

Pueblo Nuevo Enterprises, the janitorial business, has 26 employees, 15 of whom are owner-operators. This venture gives the janitors the opportunity to participate in the ownership and management of the company. Unlike most of its competitors, Pueblo Nuevo’s janitorial venture has a very low employee turnover rate because of the company’s unique ownership structure. Many of these employees are “graduates” of the Pueblo Nuevo thrift shop, which serves as a training program for people underdeveloped work skills. Pueblo Nuevo Enterprises has two significant corporate accounts that generate about $200,000 a year in gross billings, out of a total revenue base of $325,000 per year. The business is effectively growing revenues in excess of 50 percent per year. In just three years, this janitorial cooperative has achieved significant success and represents an excellent opportunity for continued growth.

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