Employment Program Celebrates 20 Years Of Hope

Hazel Strain was matter of fact about the state of her life almost 20 years ago. She was a single mother of three, trying to survive in a one-bedroom apartment.

She also was about to be pushed off the public assistance rolls because of a then new federal requirement that she get a job to keep receiving benefits.

Strain told a audience full of faces she knew gathered in the Cronin Auditorium on the Saint Raphael Campus of Yale-New Haven Hospital Thursday afternoon of how she came to know about a work readiness program called H.O.P.E. (Having an Opportunity to Prepare for Employment). It changed not only her life, but the lives of her children too, she said.

Strain is a 1997 graduate of the HOPE program, which was started at what was then the Hospital of Saint Raphael in 1996. On Thursday, a celebration was held to honor 20 years of putting people to work and the many who have helped make that happen, like Sylvia Cooper, who came up with the idea to create a program to help women receiving public assistance be ready to enter the workforce.

Strain was one of several graduates who shared how the program made a difference not only in their ability to get jobs and pursue other milestones like finishing a degree, but also finding permanent housing and being a more dedicated and involved parent.

Many also credited the program with giving them something else they didn’t have before they entered the program: self-esteem.

“While in this program I learned to love myself, because I am somebody,” Strain said. “[I learned] working skills and not to give up or get discouraged.”

Ayesha Branham, a 2006 graduate of the program, echoed the sentiment. She came into the program with a 1‑year-old son; before she finished, she had another baby on the way. She was working dead-end, part-time jobs and living in a shelter.

“I got so much more than I expected,” she said. ​“It’s way more than a job readiness program.”

With the help of the program she landed a job with Yale University and found more stable housing. She said she also learned life skills like how to pay bills, maintain credit, along with how to interview and advocate for herself. She was a speaker at the program’s 10 year anniversary and has addressed students at Southern Connecticut State University.

“I learned things about myself that I never knew,” Branham said. ​“Like, I like me.” Her confident statement drew a chuckle from the crowd. ​“I have enough tools in my toolbox to last a life time, and these tools have served me well.”

More than 400 people have graduated over the 20 years that the work readiness program has existed. Strain’s oldest daughter, who was 20 when Strain entered the program, followed in her footsteps. She went on to become a certified nursing assistant. Seeing their mom excel also influenced Strain’s other two children: Her son is a truck driver for one of the largest beverage distributors in the state, and her other daughter is now a bank supervisor.

Doe Haywood, HOPE program coordinator for the last 17 years, said the program seems to have a ripple effect touching the lives of family members with the skills and services that people gain access to through the program. When HOPE started it served only women; by the fourth year it opened its doors to men. Now its doors are also open to men and women from all over the Greater New Haven area, and has about a 71 percent success rate in getting people into stable employment.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro said it is the kind of program that her colleagues in Congress should do more to support. She said such programs have been shortchanged even as the number of people who are underemployed seems to grow. Add the exorbitant cost of childcare for working and middle class families, and it can be hard to get ahead. As it stands now, HOPE is funded mostly through public and private philanthropic efforts.

DeLauro praised the HOPE program as a model of how a program can move people from public assistance to work while providing an adequate safety net of services from domestic violence and substance abuse counseling to job training, mentorship, placement and child care.

“You are a bridge,” she said Thursday to those gathered in the audience who have helped the program over the years. ​“People want to work. What they need is a bridge. This project is that bridge.”