The Power of One    |    HOME
Youth   |   Crime   |   Housing   |   Neighborhood Restoration   |   Poverty/Welfare Reform   |   Characterists of Viable Civic Entrepreneur Organizations

Join the Free HEROES mailing list!



Email Marketing by VerticalResponse
Poverty and Welfare Reform

America Works
228 East 45th Street, 16th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Phone: (212) 599-5627
Fax: (212) 599-5174

America Works has gained national recognition for its no-nonsense, entrepreneurial approach to moving hard-to-place individuals into private industry. They transition welfare recipients, ex-offenders and other unemployed candidates into the workforce through cooperative arrangements with employers. A nationally recognized business with an 18-year-track record with offices in New York City, Albany, Indianapolis, and Baltimore.

  Civic Entrepreneurs: Dr. Lee Bowes and Peter Cove
  Email: info@americaworks.com
              Web site: www.americaworks.com/


Bridging, Inc.
201 W. 87th St.
Bloomington, MN  55420
(952)888-1105

Bridging, Inc.'s mission is to provide the economically disadvantaged with quality furniture and household items free of charge. It serves screened recipients in transition (from one of 90 social service agencies and churches in the 7 county Twin Cities metropolitian area) who are coming out of drug treatment, domestic abuse, house fires, and other stressful life situations. Bridging acquires much of its donated furnishings from businesses and corporations. The tons of used or dented furnishings that would normally be disgarded into landfills is now put to good use. The program has saved Hennepin County over $500,000/year in direct payments to individuals as well as millions in landfill costs. The association's founder, Fran Heitzman, is also the visionary behind the National Furniture Bank Association, described below. Bridging recently received the Minnesota Council of Non-Profits 2002 Award for Innovation.

Civic Entrepreneur/Founding Director: Fran Heitzman
Executive Director: Ron Osterbauer


empty tomb
301 N. Fourth Street
P.O. Box 2404
Champaign, IL  61825-2404
(217) 356-2262

empty tomb is a Christian service and research organization. empty tomb, inc. serves the church community in different ways. It provides both a financial discipleship strategy and research about church giving patterns on a national level. On the local level, empty tomb provides opportunities for volunteers to become involved in meeting various needs in Jesus' name. Assistance is provided to the needy in the form of food, clothing, home maintenance, donated furniture, emergency funds, and health services throughout the county. Funding is from churches and other private sources.

Civic Entrepreneurs: John and Sylvia Ronsvalle


Jubilee Ministries
4614 Carnegie Ave.
Fairfield, AL  35064
(205) 786-2801

Jubilee Ministries'  mission seeks to empower people to break free from poverty and misfortune through Christ-centered team mentoring. It focuses on five facets of assistance: spiritual, financial, career, accountability, and fitness. The people targeted by Jubilee are those that have been caught up in the welfare mentality, but now choose to regain their dignity and integrity as well as enter the workforce. Funding is from private donors.

Civic Entrepreneur: Rev. Terry Gensemer


People for People, Inc.
800 N. Broad St.
Philadelphia, PA  19130
(215) 235-2340

People for People, Inc. is an arm of the Greater Exodus Baptish Church founded to break the vicious cycle of poverty in the lives of North Central Philadelphia residents by providing them with positive alternatives to gangs, drugs, crime, and welfare dependency. The organization oversees a charter school, Community Development Credit Union, welfare-to-work program, youth mentoring program, emergency food distribution program, and youth enrichment programs. Funding is both from private and public (including Charitable Choice) sources.

Civic Entrepreneur: Reverend Herbert H. Lusk, II
President and CEO


St. Martin de Porres House of Hope
6423 Woodlawn Ave.
Chicago, IL  60637
(773) 643-5843

The House of Hope is a private non-profit Christian shelter for homeless and recovering substance abuse women. The onsite faculty have instituted a comprehensive plan for effectively addressing the needs of homeless women with children and for pregant teenagers in the city of Chicago. The House of Hope has been recognized by the Illinois Family Policy Council as the Model Family Program for the state of Illinois. Their primary aim is to enable each resident to leave the shelter with a renewed sense of dignity, remain stabilized long-term, and re-enter her community as a positive force. For the 2000-2001 fiscal year expenses were $9.25 per person per day. (The overhead costs are kept low compared to the national and city homeless recipient average of $28.00 per day for shelter and food.)

Civic Entrepreneurs/Founders/Directors
Sister Connie Driscoll, M.S.P.
Sister Therese O'Sullivan


Sharing Connections
5111 Chase Ave.
Downers Grove, IL  60515
(630) 971-0565

Sharing Connections is a volunteer organization which serves the needs of the Downers Grove community as well as others worldwide. By providing a link between caring people and people who need care (in the form of cost free material donations) they live the vision that one person can make a difference. Since 1986, Sharing Connections has been a collection and redistribution center of necessary living items for individuals and 62 of the Chicago-area's social service agencies.

Civic Entrepreneur: LeAnne McGrath, Executive Director


Jobs for Life (formerly The Jobs Partnership)
807 Spring Forest Road, Suite 1600
Raleigh, North Carolina  27609
919.790.7771

Jobs for Life is comprised of churches and businesses working together to mentor, train, and employ the country's neediest citizens, moving them from dependency to self-sufficiency as productive citizens. Pastors and lay leaders train and work with persons who are chronically unemployed or underemployed. Efforts are focused on bridging racial gaps and building trust with the help of church clusters who combine their efforts to serve the poor in each poverty-stricken neighborhood where an affiliate resides. There are dozens of local Jobs for Life programs in 32 communities nationwide. Funding is from both private and public sources.

Civic Entrepreneurs:
Reverend Donald McCoy and
Chris Mangum, C.C. Mangum, Inc.
Web site: www.jobsforlife.com/
E-mail: info@jobsforlife.com


The National Furniture Bank Association
Furniture Bank Metro Atlanta
538 Permalume Place
Atlanta, GA 30318

The NFBA is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to launch and expand furniture banks across the United States. Needy families in transition are helped with basic furnishings to make their house a home. The Association began in 1999 when Fran Heitzman of Bridging, Inc. brought together a small group of existing furniture banks in several major cities. They decided to form a clearinghouse of information for starting up and operating a furniture bank.

Civic Entrepreneur: Fran Heitzman
Executive Director: Ron Osterbauer
Web site: www.thenfba.org


The Time Is Now
P.O. Box 70
Pell Lake, WI  53157-0070

The Time is Now provides personal items, food, and rehabilitation of local housing along with new shelter for the homeless/poverty stricken elderly and children of Pembroke Township in Illinois. Pembroke is the 3rd most impoverished area of the United States, located south of Chicago in Kankakee County. The on-going effort seeks to maintain at least a minimum standard of subsistence for the 4,000 elderly and young children who reside in this tragically neglected community. Funding is from private sources.

Civic Entrepreneur: Sal Dimiceli, Executive Director
Email: info@timeisnowtohelp.org


  Copyright Power Of One Publishing LLC 2008