Since the pandemic, WOW has served over 75,000 emergency meals through partnerships across the metro area.
Work Options for Women (WOW) takes a holistic approach to providing skills for employment and life skills for people who are experiencing serious barriers to sustained employment. We provide hands-on culinary job skills training paired with soft skill development through case management, cognitive behavioral therapy, job readiness preparation (i.e. resume building, mock interviews), as well as offering financial health/destressing courses through our partnership with Financial Health Institute. When the pandemic hit and closed our social enterprise cafes, we changed our program services to move away from serving customers as part of the curriculum to preparing and distributing emergency meals to community members in need. Since the start of the pandemic, WOW has served over 75,000 emergency meals through partnerships across the metro area. Impact100’s grant allowed us to lay the groundwork for transformative change in the way we operate and deliver our program and jump to the forefront of what it means to offer a transformational, hands-on learning experience that ultimately leads to sustained employment. Without the help of Impact100, we would likely not be as successful in job retention and reduction in recidivism rates in our justice-involved community as we are today. The support from Impact100 allowed us to continue to dream big and add a food truck that provides transitional employment opportunities to our students who complete our Mobile Culinary Classroom training. Working with Impact100 has been incredible. While other funders are interested in what their money does for the organization and require formal reports, they are not always open to in-depth engagement or long-term personal relationship building, which is the opposite of how Impact100 operates.
