Our Center for Working Families helps local residents secure and sustain quality jobs (& build wealth in the process). 

How did we begin? 

The Quad Communities Center for Working Families was launched in January of 2006 and was inspired by LISC Chicago's New Communities Program Quality of Life Plan for this area.   In August of 2008, The Cara Program assumed management of this center and was able to leverage its traditional training and placement model, in tandem with its focus on community job development through the Career Pathways Resource Center, to expand its services to the neighborhood.  

Since its inception, our Center for Working Families has successfully placed over 240 local residents into quality jobs, most notably at companies such as Allstate, Michael's Market and ARAMARK, while creating the building blocks with which families (and ultimately whole communities) are transformed. 

And how do we do it?

The Center for Working Families provides individualized, quality services to local residents interested in mapping a pathway to long-term success; and in some cases, in need of overcoming the interrelated challenges of poverty, skill barriers, chronic homelessness and unemployment.  We address poverty by giving individuals the opportunity to secure permanent employment through a variety of training, support, and job placement services.  We mitigate many barriers to employment by providing residents with access to one-on-one job coaching, quality workshops and a variety of training opportunities.  We also maintain relationships with many Chicagoland employers who trust the quality of our candidates for filling their open positions.   And we do all this in a resource center located right in the community, so access to jobs and a means to grow income is easily within reach for local residents.