The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) has successfully raised a sum of $5.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Growth Opportunities program.
According to certain reports, these newly-raised funds will tread up a long distance to facilitate the expansion of foundation’s restaurant and hospitality focused training, mentorship, and job placement outreach to young adults with justice involvement across six states.
More on that would reveal how the grant will effectively strengthen NRAEF’s work with justice, agency, and community-based partners through expansion of its Hospitality Opportunities for People (Re) Entering Society (HOPES) program. The idea behind such an effort is to empower more than 425 young adults with industry-focused training to take on career-building jobs.
To further break it down, the development will engage justice involved young adults between the ages of 18 and 24, and it will do so within communities across Anchorage, Alaska.; Denver, Colo.; Bridgeport, Conn.; Dover, Del.; Georgetown, Del.; Wilmington, Del.; Flint, Mich.; and Pittsburgh, Pa.
Markedly enough, the whole effort will also be supported by the charitable foundations of Alaska Cabaret, Hotel, Restaurant, and Retailers Association; Colorado Restaurant Association; Connecticut Restaurant Association; Delaware Restaurant Association; Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association; and Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association, as well as local correction departments, and community-based organizations.
Apart from that, we must also mention how program has all the means for preparing participants to successfully enter, or re-enter, the workplace and succeed through long-term mentorship, violence prevention education, leadership development, and paid work experiences with restaurant and hospitality-focused employers.
“HOPES is part of our work to help people from all backgrounds and experiences, including young people with justice involvement, see their possibilities in an industry career,” said Rob Gifford, president of National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. “We are grateful for the opportunity to increase our investment in these young people and build greater opportunity for them to build a future in our industry.”
For better understanding, administered by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, the program in question is best known for helping young people living amid poverty and violence in their communities. This it does by providing the necessary infrastructure to more micro, local programs that were originally conceived for improving participants’ conflict resolution skills and self-perception, while simultaneously investing in the education, employment, and other stabilizing services needed to achieve long term goals.
The end product is work-readiness, alongside restaurant industry-specific training and employment for people of all ages who have an ongoing or previous involvement in the justice system. The program’s excellence in what it does can also be understood once you consider that, up until now, over 1,200 people have completed the course, with more than 85 percent receiving occupation skills training, and over 60 percent earning industry-recognized training.
In case that wasn’t enough, participants also have a placement rate of over 60 percent, most of them placed in restaurant and foodservice-focused roles. From the ones who do get placed, over half were still found to be employed at six months, whereas on the other hand, over one-third of participants maintained employment beyond the first year.
