Independent Life Skills
Our programs give clients the skills and cultivate the desire to enter the workforce and become productive members of the community.
HomeFront’s Hire Expectations program puts parents on the road to success with well-trained instructors and administrative staff and multi-faceted instruction for education and workforce skill preparation.
Life skills are also needed for independent living. HomeFront provides training in parenting, health, budgeting and cooking, which can be the most family-affirming skill of all. In our spacious teaching kitchen at the Family Preservation Center, parents are taught the preparation of inexpensive, nutritious and delicious meals.
Our staff and caseworkers also address barriers to success, such as lack of housing, legal problems and mental or physical health issues. Throughout all our programs, intensive support and case management are fundamental to integrating resources and tailoring programs to ensure the success of the client.
Hire Expectations
HomeFront’s Hire Expectations program, based at the Family Preservation Center on the Family Campus, includes WorkFirst services.
Through WorkFirst, HomeFront provides instruction leading to high school equivalency diplomas, with the help of 25 volunteer tutors, and administers the final tests to candidates for those diplomas. The instruction and the testing take place at the Family Preservation Center on the Family Campus. Non-resident clients are bused in.
When the diploma is in hand, HomeFront helps in resume preparation, coaches clients for success at job interviews, provides the right clothing from the FreeStore, and connects the job-seeker with potential employers.
In the Hire Expectations computer lab, clients can also learn basic skills and achieve certification in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
HomeFront believes that education is key to better jobs and higher pay, and that nothing can be more valuable than a high school diploma. Now that HomeFront has been approved by the New Jersey Department of Education to be a High School EquivalencyTest site, clients and others can conveniently take the test on site at the Family Preservation Center.
In response to the job market and with state funding, HomeFront also offers a six-week, full-time course that trains clients to become customer-service specialists for places like call centers, banks or hotels. It is open to clients who are receiving unemployment compensation or had been receiving it within the past year. When training is complete, HomeFront reaches out to interested employers to arrange job interviews.
