Income and Wealth Building
Healthy, vibrant communities are made up of people who have living wage jobs and feel confident about their economic futures. To get there, residents not only need the skills to enter the workforce and advance along a path of employment, but they also need the skills to tackle the complexities of financial life – earning a steady paycheck, budgeting, building good credit, and saving for the future.
LISC Rhode Island addresses these needs through three unique programs aimed at helping people get the resources they need and learn skills necessary to find — and keep — living wage jobs:
- Financial Opportunity Center (FOC) program partners provide personal financial coaches, financial health and career coaching, digital literacy, and access to unique financial tools that help participants improve credit scores.
- LISC developed the Bridges to Career Opportunities program to help FOC clients get the contextualized education and wrap-around supports they need to excel in workforce development programs. LISC provides ongoing partnership with select providers through technical assistance, model adaptations, evaluation, and assessment to ensure programs deliver the best possible results for participants.
- And, LISC manages the SNAP Employment & Training program for the State of Rhode Island, which helps to fund local adult education and training programs for SNAP participants that lead to employment. Visit our SNAP E&T website. SNAP E&T is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), religious creed, disability, age, political beliefs or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activities. Please see the FNS Nondiscrimination Statement for more information.
Bridges to Career Opportunities
The Bridges program grew from the success of the FOC model and provides a program that responds to the chronic problem of low-wage stagnation among hard-to-employ, unskilled workers. Bridges pairs workforce training programs with foundational skills development in reading, math and English that have been contextualized to specific industry growth sectors.
Financial Opportunity Center®
LISC supports a network of 120 FOC partners across the country. Currently LISC supports three in Rhode Island — at Amos House, Genesis Center, and JARC.
SNAP Employment and Training
The SNAP Employment and Training program provides free job training, support and counseling for people participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This statewide program is administered by LISC Rhode Island.
Tommy Ngo's Turn-Around Story
Financial Opportunity Center® programs create a safety net for re-entry clients. Tommy's dedication and determination has led him through the Bridges program and landed him with his dream job.
