Model and Strategy
Juma is a unique social enterprise that through its YouthConnect program, combines employment and job training with a complementary suite of services focused on building financial capability and career pathways for disconnected youth.
Juma’s young adults work in sports arenas across the US selling concessions as they master soft and hard skills, build core competencies in customer service, problem solving, and business operations. Youth are supported by Career Coaches, focused on helping them overcome personal barriers to successful employment and mastery of the following skills: growth mindset, logical reasoning, personal accountability, public speaking, teamwork, and leadership.
Juma develops a “talent pipeline” that takes youth from having no job to having a career. Youth are supported to find permanent employment with good benefits and pursue education pathways. Our goal is to ensure that by age 25, youth are on a career trajectory toward a living wage and economic well-being.
Impact
Juma’s core belief is that the world’s greatest social service program is a job. A job is about more than a paycheck. There’s dignity in work and research shows that when clients are given the chance to work, they are more likely to graduate from high school and become productive members of society.
Our theory of change posits that it is the combination of a powerful first employment experience, much needed income, academic support and asset building that helps youth overcome the hardships of poverty, aspire to career success and to make long term behavior changes such as developing a strong work ethic and establishing saving habits. With support of a positive adult role model they are exploring a range of education and career pathways, setting career goals and being given the training and soft skills needed to succeed in 21st century careers.
The development of a Youth Talent Pipeline is the next progression of our work, bringing our expertise on providing jobs in a youth development framework, to the more scalable and sustainable platform of corporate partnerships where youth have the opportunity to progress towards middle-skilled jobs. As an employer, Juma is in a unique position to understand the talent needs and language of our partners. While we are currently working to match the needs of the retail, hospitality and logistics industries, the training and placement model, through a constellation of partners including nonprofits, government and industry-recognized credential and training programs, will be developed to align with additional high-demand industries.
Leadership
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Marc Spencer
CEO