Portland nonprofit is helping unhoused people find steady jobs

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – A Portland nonprofit is looking to partner with local companies who are willing to offer jobs to those in need.

Cultivate Initiatives is a program that has helped hundreds of unhoused people find long and short-term employment.

“People are in that program, they get a sense of dignity and confidence remembering that they can work again,” said Matthew McCarl with Cultivate Initiatives. “It’s a quick way for people who are on the streets to be able to see their value again contributing to the community.”

The program has been able to flourish thanks to the Housing Services Measure passed in 2020 and received $1.26 million in funding. It’s a marginal tax on high earners that pays for housing services and programs like this. Metro Council is currently considering changes to this tax as well as a ballot measure referral related to it in May. Last Fiscal year, the program had 475 participants and 103 graduates.

SEE ALSO:

Now, the program organizers want to broaden the job opportunities they can offer, and are looking for partners willing to hire program participants once they complete their internships.

“Some of the main employers that we’re looking to partner with are service industries – would love to partner with manufacturing organizations that are willing to do training, would love to work with warehouse jobs,” McCarl said.

Participants start as interns in the Beautification Program removing garbage in Multnomah County. The Beautification Program has removed more than one million pounds of garbage in one year.

Interns work five days a week and receive $105 daily. The program also helps them get things necessary for employment such as IDs and build a resume. Once those things are complete, they have the chance to work with the program full-time at $20.60 an hour or go on to work elsewhere.

“So many of our neighbors have immense skills with neighbors who have been in construction – folks who have ran their own businesses,” McCarl said. “When we have an intern that comes to us and says ‘hey, I used to do this,’ we can say ‘oh well this employer’s looking for exactly that’ and provided them that pathway.”

Nadine Smith started as an intern and has worked with Cultivate Initiatives for two months.

“Before I was hopeless, but now I feel like I feel like I’m finding my way in the world again,” Smith said. “I hadn’t had a job for 12 years and so getting in and finding that humanity of like, I belong and getting confidence that I can work, was super important and it’s been the cornerstone of helping me navigate in recovery.”

Now she takes pride in her job and wants to pay it forward and help others.

“It helps people find something that something that they lost. Treatment and all of these things are important but having a job and feeling confident and being able to come to work today, it’s like the most important piece that’s lacking,” Smith said.

To join the program or partner with them, visit cultivateinitiatives.org.

Copyright 2024 KPTV-KPDX. All rights reserved.