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Success Stories
Sou
Sou came to the United States as a refugee from Laos in 1988. When he came to this country he had very little education, little work history, few works skills and his English was very limited. He and his wife Thao have nine children between the ages of 3 and 16. Sou and Thao were receiving benefits from the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP). Due to his situation, Sou had only been able to work temporary, low skill, low wage jobs. He was nearing his 60-month time limit on MFIP and felt that he needed more support to get a permanent well paying job. Sou asked his MFIP counselor for more help who then referred him to AccessAbility.
Sou and his AccessAbility Employment Counselor worked hard together to find him a good placement in the Twin Cities community. Today, Sou is working for a company in Plymouth in a permanent position at a pay rate of $9.50 per hour. His AccessAbility Employment Counselor also placed Thao in a full-time position as a Home Health Aid at a wage of $7.00 per hour six months later. Prior to coming to AccessAbility, Sou and Thao had both been working temporary jobs through a local temporary agency.
After both husband and wife were working for a while, they decided to buy a 5-bedroom home in North Minneapolis. Their goal was to enable their children to go to the same school and build relationships with their teachers. His family is no longer receiving cash benefits, but still needs the medical insurance provided to MFIP recipients. Sou likes his job and wants to keep it as long as possible.
Latrina
Latrina, a single mother of two daughters receiving benefits from the Minnesota Family Investment Program, had difficulty finding a job due to a poor work history. About to lose her apartment with no alternative living arrangement available, she really needed to get a job to avoid homelessness. The need to utilize public transportation limited her job search to those available on bus lines. In addition, she needed to find reliable and affordable childcare. Latrina did have her high school diploma allowing her to enroll in Project Connect at AccessAbility in March of 2003.
With the help of her job developer, she developed goals and expectations for herself. Latrina received training in customer service, keyboarding, 10-key, resume writing, interviewing, and job search techniques from a variety of sources including internet sites and free newspapers. She was also connected to resources to obtain childcare and appropriate clothing for interviews.
Within two weeks of entering Project Connect, Latrina had found a job as a customer service representative with a local event rental company on the bus line at a wage of $9.00/hour. She enjoys what she is doing and this job is a starting point to help her family move from receiving public benefits to becoming self-sufficient.
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