NYCHA Now

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NYCHA Now
Chair Olatoye and Jobs-Plus staff
August 2017 

An A-Plus for Jobs-Plus

Michael Corwin
Chair Olatoye and Jobs-Plus staff
Chair & CEO Shola Olatoye (center) and EVP for Community Engagement & Partnerships Sideya Sherman (in white dress in doorway) discuss the success of Jobs-Plus at Astoria Houses with Urban Upbound staff.

Since it was implemented at NYCHA in 2009, the Jobs-Plus employment program has grown from one site (at Jefferson Houses) to 10 sites serving a total of 27 developments (the newest site is at Pennsylvania Avenue-Wortman Avenue). In that time, it has connected more than 6,700 residents to jobs, thanks to support from program partners like the City’s Human Resources Administration, the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity, and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

As part of the Queens edition of “City Hall in Your Borough,” Chair & CEO Shola Olatoye visited the Jobs-Plus program at Astoria Houses, operated by non-profit partner Urban Upbound.

Jobs-Plus fits squarely with the NextGen goal to engage residents by connecting them to quality employment and best-in-class services. It’s proven to increase participants’ earnings by an average of 16 percent through its unique strategy, which involves:

  • Career development services for residents with varying skill sets and job readiness;
  • Financial counseling, asset-building services, and HUD rent incentives that promote work and savings; and
  • Neighbor-to-neighbor community organizing that encourages support for work.

“The Astoria Jobs-Plus staff does an excellent job in recruiting residents for various programs in the areas of education and financial counseling as well as connecting residents to employment opportunities,” remarked Cornell Hampton, the REES Zone Coordinator for Western Queens who manages the partnership with Urban Upbound.

Participants also improve their education and personal finances by completing vocational training, enrolling in college, increasing their credit and savings, and reducing their debt.

Darnella Smalls, a single mother of two who had been without stable employment for over a year, attended career readiness training to develop her resume and hone her interviewing skills. Just a month after joining the program, she got hired as a manager with Edible Arrangements, where she is responsible for her location’s day-to-day operations, service delivery, and staff hiring and training.

“I didn’t think it would be this fast,” she exclaimed. “But I came to every session and meeting and it worked. I listened to everything they advised. Jobs-Plus helped make it possible for me!”

Over the next three years, NYCHA expects each Jobs-Plus site to enroll 1,600 members and to connect more than a third of them to employment.

Jobs-Plus members
Astoria Jobs-Plus members Junior Rowe (at podium) and Sharonda Gayle (far left) talk about how the program has helped them, joined by Chair Olatoye, Astoria Houses Resident Association President Claudia Coger, and Assembly Member Catherine Nolan (center, from left to right), as part of Queens’ “City Hall in Your Borough” week.