In This Section
Financial Empowerment
Microlending Program
The W.I.N. Micro Lending program will provide outreach, support, and education to participants in order to ensure successful business start-ups or growth opportunities.
The program will serve low income individuals who are interested in starting or growing their micro business. Low interest loans ranging from $500-$5,000 will be offered to individuals who submit a sound business plan proposal and have matching funds for their program idea.
W.I.N Microlending program (Spanish)
Family Self Sufficiency Program
Kern County, since its inception has been a rural area. Rural areas often face different and more significant challenges than their metropolitan counterparts regarding poverty: lower educational levels, greater unemployment and underemployment levels, employment contained largely to low wage industries, fewer work support services offered, etc. As a result rural areas tend to have increased levels of poverty when compared to metro/urban areas. With 23% of its population living under the poverty level and 12,000 families on the wait list for public housing, Kern County is no different.
The purpose of the Family Self Sufficiency Program (FSSP) is to help families free themselves of all governmental aid programs making them completely self sufficient. Residents who participate in the FSSP are first interviewed by their service coordinator. The interview is designed to identify the client’s current annual income, employment and educational status, employment and educational goals, barriers to job training, schooling or employment, and assistance needed to achieve their goals. Our service coordinators work one on one with their clients and assist them in identifying and enrolling the programs they need to achieve their academic and or employment goals. They also assist them in obtaining access to the support programs they need to overcome the barriers they may face: child care, career counseling, transportation, substance abuse counseling, and educational.
Youth Empowerment
Teen Club
Being a teenager is tough: puberty, peer pressure, social acceptance, body image, academic pressure, and uncertainty. Living in poverty not only amplifies these problems for teens but introduces situations and pressures that their more financially secure peers could never imagine. Teens living in poverty struggle with: emotional problems, poor nutrition and hygiene, academic problems, teen pregnancy, gangs and drugs at a much higher level than teens living in higher-income households. Our Teen Club is designed to fill in the gaps and give our teens the tools and skills they need to navigate their way through the rough seas of adolescence. Our particpants take a series of classes on responsibility and respect, hygiene, relationships, academics and college preparation, financial literacy, leadership, emotional intelligence, and many others. Through their participation teens begin to identify their self worth, develop a sense of respect, see beyond their current situation, and to create a sense of hope for their future.