Focusing on the age-old principle of offering a hand up rather than a hand out, the mission of Jacob's Ladder Job Center, Inc. is to help the unemployed and underemployed find and keep living wage jobs. Our goal is to help disadvantaged people achieve economic self-sufficiency and improve the quality of their lives.

In 2008, 665 clients were oriented. Of these, 341 were male, 324 were
female, 327 had criminal records, and 175 were shelter residents. As of
December 31, 440 clients remained active in their job searches, and 225
clients had achieved employment.
• Our clients are primarily low-wealth African Americans living in or near
poverty. Most endure generational poverty and live in disenfranchised
neighborhoods where poverty is at an all-time high.
• Unemployment rates for African Americans are typically double that of
the general population. Currently, unemployment for African Americans
exceeds 13% and the rate for African Americans age 16-23 is a startling 43%.
• Clients’ barriers to employment and job retention include: little to no
personal income due to prolonged unemployment, lack of professional
clothing, substandard housing, unreliable transportation, lack of affordable
or quality childcare, lack of medical/life benefits. These challenges are
aggravated by the absence of community role models with knowledge of
and access to job opportunities.
• The length of time it takes to find living wage jobs has increased from an
average of 6 weeks to 3-4 months, and clients are feeling the stress and
demoralization of prolonged job searches.

Jacob’s Ladder is a free, four-step job readiness program. Our approach
to helping our clients become self-sufficient stresses partnerships with
community agencies and local businesses. We are not a job placement
center. We concentrate on teaching acceptable work ethics and coaching
clients in the “soft skills” of job readiness and job retention. In our first 10
years, we have served approximately 4,000 clients with 2,000 securing
full-time work. Several hundred more achieved part-time employment to
build reliable work histories.