ELPIS ENTERPRISES
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Mission Statement
Elpis Enterprises serves young people between 16 and 23 years of age who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in the metro Twin Cities area of Minnesota. Our program provides a paid work experience and employment readiness training. Elpis is unique among youth employment programs in its focus on recognizing the unique challenges facing young people who are homeless. We are also one of only a few programs that offer homeless young people a chance to earn a paycheck while in a workforce training program. Elpis operates three social enterprises to provide a paid work experience and employment readiness training. While sales fully cover our manufacturing costs, community support is needed to offset the costs of providing a supportive work environment where young people learn from their mistakes. Your support of Elpis Enterprises, whether it be a financial contribution or as a volunteer, helps young people create a path from homelessness towards a brighter future.
About This Cause
Begun almost 22 years ago, Elpis Enterprises is a non-profit organization that operates three social enterprises to provide a paid work experience and employment readiness training to young people between 16 and 23 year of age who are homeless or at risk of homeless in the metro Twin Cities area of Minnesota. A social enterprise uses the methods of business and the power of the marketplace to advance social and human justice issues. Elpis’ social enterprises provide a unique way for the community to address the issues of homelessness and the needs of young people. Whether as a customer of one of our enterprises, donor or volunteer, you will be providing young people with a pathway to stability and a better future. The three social enterprises we operate are custom screen printing, manufactured wood products (using donated recycled woods for finished and do it yourself kits for bird feeders, nesting boxes, and compost bins), and e-commerce (where customers can design their own products or purchase ready-made products). Our small business environment allows us to offer trainees various work experience opportunities across multiple disciplines. Working in our enterprises prepares trainees for success in any work setting and helps them to identify career paths that interest them. Our three program components are: -Building Skills: As trainees work in one of our enterprises, they have the opportunity to earn nationally recognized career credentials in addition to developing life skills and acquiring technical training. -Building Experience: We offer on the job training in all components of a small manufacturing business. This includes production, office and administration, sales and marketing operations. -Building Relationships: We provide assistance in job placement. This includes working with trainees in building a work experience portfolio, as well as networking connections through our more than 500 customers. Our training program is self-paced and emphasizes a hands-on learning approach. Trainees are on site Mondays through Fridays for 20 hours per week. With most trainees completing our program in three to six months, this represents 240 to 480 hours of training. Individualized coaching and mentoring is provided by our enterprise coordinators who work side by side with trainees. Case management/wrap around services are provided by agencies that refer trainees to Elpis. These wrap around services promote success during the training period and after graduation from Elpis. Typically each year 70% of our trainees who complete our training obtain employment paying $10 an hour or more, which is above the minimum wage. All make progress on their educational plans related to long-term career goals. Our key funding needs are: Community support to provide employment readiness training services. These are costs that are enterprise competitors do not incur. If employment readiness training costs were included in our product pricing, our products would no longer be market competitive. We estimate these employment readiness support services (e.g. assistance with job-seeking, a supportive work environment) costs an average cost of $1,880 to $2,200 per trainee. Capital equipment: We have secured 72% of funds needed to purchase our first automated screen printing press. It will allow us to offer new products, as well as accept larger and more complex orders. Being able to tap into these new markets will provide trainees with hands-on experience in marketing, sales and customer service. Business growth will also allow us to hire more trainees each year. We also need individuals to: - Provide guidance, coaching and mentoring to trainees as they seek post-training employment and education opportunities beyond what our staff offers trainees. -Join our business advisory council, which uses our multi-year business plan to develop strategies for growing enterprise sales. As an Elpis supporter or customer, you are helping young people achieve dreams that they thought were beyond their reach.