CWFs Step Up in Hard Times

With neighborhoods and families struggling through the economic crisis, it’s no surprise that LISC/Chicago’s Centers for Working Families (CWFs) are busier than ever.

“We’re being flooded with people looking for jobs, looking for food stamps, looking to save their house from foreclosure,” said Ricki Lowitz, LISC/Chicago’s senior program officer in charge of the CWF network since its inception in 2004.

LISC/Chicago's Centers for Working Families served more than 8,000 families in 2008.

But the CWFs are also more disciplined than ever, helping families prepare for and find living-wage jobs, craft budgets, set up direct deposits to interest-bearing bank accounts, win loan modifications, apply for government assistance and avoid predatory loans and fee-laden financial services.

The achievements of the 12 CWFs that operated throughout 2008 speak to the value of the program’s integrated menu of services: more than 8,000 families were served; more than 5,000 obtained employment services, with nearly 1,000 placed in jobs and another 1,500 in education and training programs; and nearly 1,000 were helped to apply for benefits or income supports worth over $1 million.

Still, it’s in the people, not the numbers, that the real achievements of the CWFs take form.

Jacqueline Hawkins sees it every day as director of the CWF in South Chicago, where more and more pink slips are leading people to seek employment services.

“We try to ascertain where they’ve been, and what they need to get to where they want to go. Maybe it’s back to school. Maybe it’s re-training. Most often it’s coming up with a budget that fits the new circumstance.”

“And almost always,” said Hawkins, “ it’s about self-esteem … showing someone what they’re worth, or could be worth, so they don’t go away thinking they’re worthless. That much is fundamental.”