Esperanza believes that for communities to thrive, families must have access to high quality education, stable gainful employment, healthy lifestyles, and safe environments. We know that many of the residents in our community were not afforded the education to help them build successful long term careers, and as such experience high rates of unemployment and underemployment.

Many of the unemployed and underemployed lack crucial job readiness skills, have poor work history, and may depend on welfare (TANF) or other government benefits to survive. Unemployment leads to the lack of financial resources that results in families’ inability to afford basic necessities such as adequate food and stable housing, and the struggle to survive hinders any advancements toward economic stability and self-sufficiency.

Esperanza’s workforce development services help individuals and families gain the job readiness skills they need, and assists them in finding and keeping employment. Our proven, best-practice model has demonstrated effectiveness in assessing people’s needs and providing the right kind of intervention to help them move toward economic self-sufficiency.

Fast Facts:
  • Our EARN Center serves over 2400 people per year
  • The average length of participation in our program is 12 months
  • For the past 3 years we have been the highest performing of the 9 EARN Centers in the city of Philadelphia, according to contractual benchmarks
  • Clients who find employment start at an average wage of $9.00 per hour, and 74% of clients who find employment keep their jobs for 6 months or longer
  • The average literacy level of clients upon entering the program is between 4th and 5th grade, and 98% of our clients are single parents
Our mission is to help job seekers:
  • Improve work-related skills
  • Become confident in their abilities to get and keep a job
  • Find long-term employment so that they can become financially self-sufficient
  • Overcome barriers to retaining employment long-term
We accomplish our mission through:
  • Personal and professional development for job seekers
  • Job-readiness training and career mentoring for job seekers
  • Placement and retention services
  • Services for employers
  • Specific training tracks that support Spanish only speakers

Read more about our successful EARN Center program and learn the history of our workforce development efforts.