Programs Serving Women Well
Women In Successful Employment (WISE)

Agency: JVS
Location: Toronto

Program Description:

The goal of Women in Successful Employment (WISE) is to help women re-enter the workforce or make career changes. Launched in March 2005, this program supports clients as they develop return-to-work and career action plans, find suitable training, and build job search skills. WISE offers individual counselling, peer support, and workshops, as well as access to computers, Internet, fax, and photocopiers.

Eligibility:

WISE is for women ages 25 and over who are unemployed or underemployed. Underemployment is defined as in school or working less than 16 hours per week. Participants in the program must be eligible to work in Canada.

Measures of Success:

In its first 14 months of operation, WISE served 325 new women for the contract year and carried over 150 clients from 2005.

The program is mandated to have 60% of clients find employment and 15% of clients enter training. To date, 55% of clients completing the program have found work while 14% have started a training program.

Clients are extremely happy with WISE: Seventy per-cent report being “very satisfied”, while the remaining 30% state that they are “mostly satisfied” with this service. Overall, 55% report that they have found a clear career path.

Why It Works:

Keeping clients at the centre of the service is the basic philosophy of this service. This informs both the atmosphere of the program location, the provision of services, and the commitment of staff to continuously evaluate the program’s effectiveness.

Staff work to create comfortable, supportive, and encouraging environment. The program is delivered by a team of four counsellors. It is the only service provided in its location. Clients and staff get to know each other well.

WISE is client-centred and staff shape the program to fit the needs of the participants. Clients can meet with counsellors one-on-one once or twice per week and many correspond by email. Clients also have access to support group workshops with other women in similar circumstances. Since the program is tailored individually, length of participation depends on the woman’s needs; clients can stay with the program for up to one year.

WISE staff evaluate their efforts often. At the end of each workshop or group session participants complete formal evaluations. Once an individual finishes the WISE program, she is asked to fill out a program evaluation survey. After one year of operation, staff contacted all clients in order to gather their feedback for a program assessment.

Challenges:

Initially, it was a challenge to recruit clients because WISE was new and unknown. The program’s location in Toronto’s downtown core* and its accessibility by public transit have helped attract participants. Now the challenges are retention, and the collection and integration of feedback from client evaluations.

The Effects of the LMDA on this Service:

HRSDC (federal) funding has been approved for WISE until March 2008, but it is uncertain of what will happen once the program becomes the responsibility of the province.

For More Information:

The JVS web site: www.jvstoronto.org
Contact: wise@jvstoronto.org or (416) 682-9095 ext 208

*Other Locations: Women In New Roles (WINR) is another JVS program and is modelled on WISE. WINR is located at Finch and Keele.

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