Responding to the need for permanent renewal in the conditions of Flint and the surrounding areas, STRIVE is a nationally recognized workforce initiative that focuses on individual and community empowerment through employment.

To help men and women earn a livable income and achieve financial independence. To establish self-sufficiency by providing job preparation training and long term employment opportunities and to create a resource in support of STRIVE graduates for a lifetime. To partner with Greater Flint Area organizations and businesses to promote valuable employees and increase the economic environment in our communities.

To empower individuals to open doors, change lives and strengthen community. To join in the general effort to raise the hopes and well being of persons in need throughout the region.

STRIVE (Support and Training Results In Valuable Employees) was created in East Harlem in 1985 to help people who face significant barriers to employment achieve economic independence through work. STRIVE’s innovative model, which ran counter to the conventional wisdom in employment and training at the time, combined a short, intense period of training in attitude-the “soft” skills needed to survive and excel in any work place-and job search techniques with rapid placement and long term follow-up.

As the value of STRIVE’s training model became more recognized by the mainstream, and interest in workforce development and welfare reform grew in the 1990’s, STRIVE responded to the demand for replication of its East Harlem program. By embedding the program within independent, community-based organizations, STRIVE expanded within New York, then replicated into a national network across the continental United States and in London. Through this dynamic network that now numbers 21 Affiliates, STRIVE has refined and enriched its programs to meet the evolving needs of its target populations.

The network is supported by STRIVE National, an organization of experienced staff that provides support and direction for the affiliates. This central supports quality control, innovation, and expansion among the network’s affiliates.

Benefiting from having both locally grounded affiliates and a national scope, STRIVE has a history of continuous improvement, a clear focus on program outcomes, and continuity of leadership. Perhaps most important, STRIVE’s service have been driven by needs of its target population and the realities of the employment market. The STRIVE network has had a demonstrable impact, placing more than 22,000 hard-to-employ individuals in jobs. STRIVE programs have consistently placed 75% of their graduates, with an average of 70% remaining employed after two years. In 2001, STRIVE graduated 4,000 individuals from its job-readiness training program and placed 3,000 individuals in unsubsidized job throughout the National Network of Affiliates. Future goals for growth included increasing national graduates to 6,000 and job placements to 4,500 over the next five years.

Because of these results, STRIVE has become recognized as a pioneering and effective program, influencing workforce development policy nationwide.