CareerSource Palm Beach County Awards $300,000 to The Lord’s Place for Expanded Services to Homeless and Ex-Offenders

West Palm Beach, Fla. (March 22, 2019) – CareerSource Palm Beach County announced today that it has awarded an additional $100,000 in funding to The Lord’s Place to increase the scope of services they provide to homeless ex-offenders and other men and women experiencing homelessness. This new funding is in addition to $200,000 already awarded by CareerSource this program year to fund these services.

“CareerSource Palm Beach County has provided a total of $2 million in funding to The Lord’s Place over the past 10 years to help end the cycle of homelessness and unemployment. The Lord’s Place has an outstanding track record of providing intensive services to CareerSource homeless participants and we look forward to working with them to expand these efforts,” Steve Craig said, the president and CEO at CareerSource Palm Beach County. “These services include benefits navigation, peer support, individual therapy, literacy tutoring, financial coaching, referrals to stabilized housing and health care coordination.”

The funding will enable The Lord’s Place to dedicate greater time and resources to providing individualized attention to participants who are 18 years or older, and are either (1) currently incarcerated or were incarcerated during their lifetime and are homeless or (2) homeless. Services will also include one-on-one/small group job coaching and life skills instruction. With these additional funds, The Lord’s Place will add 20 additional participants to their program, enroll 14 more participants into their employability skills training, and help 25 participants obtain unsubsidized employment.

“We are grateful for this increased level of support from CareerSource,” The Lord’s Place CEO Diana Stanley said. “The services it will help us provide are life-changing to those we serve. Through the expanded training and counseling this grant funds, individuals who were once homeless or incarcerated will have increased access to meaningful and sustained employment which is key to long-term stability in their lives.”

CareerSource’s contract with The Lord’s Place bolsters other initiatives to help persons experiencing homelessness such as “Street Engagement Teams” operating in The City of West Palm Beach. In the past two years, The Lord’s Place workers have engaged with 746 people, connected 332 of them with public services and found housing for 195, either locally or by reuniting them with family in their home communities.

CareerSource Palm Beach County offers classes and facilities for job searches, grants for job skills training for those who qualify, career development and consulting. During the past five program years, CareerSource Palm Beach County assisted more than 92,000 residents find employment ranging from entry level to executive suite, with salaries from these jobs creating $2.1 billion in annual average wages. CareerSource also has awarded $13 million in grants to area businesses and employees for training and educational assistance during that time. More information is available at www.careersourcepbc.com.

The Lord’s Place is dedicated to ending the cycle of homelessness by providing innovative, compassionate and effective services for the homeless children, women and men in our Palm Beach County community. For more information visit www.thelordsplace.org or call 561.494.0125.

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