BACK-TO-WORK PROGRAM

Back-to-Work Program provides a short-term stay for homeless men who are employed or seeking full-time employment, allowing them to save money while they look for more permanent housing.

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Dedication pays off.

Providing a short-term stay for men who are homeless and are seeking full-time employment

Guiding Light’s Back to Work program provides a short-term stay for men who are homeless and are seeking full-time employment, allowing them to save money while they look for permanent housing. This program is a smart and strong solution for promoting financial independence through work.

Once in the Back to Work program, the men are given a bed, three square meals a day and a rundown of all the tools available to find a job, such as our computer lab for job research and creating resumes. They receive job coaching, training in techniques for searches, and daily encouragement and advice. Guiding Light has a closet full of suits as well, for upcoming interviews. As needed, the men are provided transportation and any prerequisites they may need to accept a job offer such as work boots or uniforms.

Usually, men will find a job within the first week. Most of the men will have around twelve – fifteen weeks to work their new jobs and save money for a place to live.

FIND STABILITY

REQUIREMENTS

Prospective clients must be able and willing to work
Persons who receive SSI or other monies are ineligible for our program
We accept persons with felonies, but we may reject an individual who has recent violent felonies
The Guiding Light Back to Work Program expects any person who comes to us for help to be honest, open-minded, and willing to work hard to change

Interview

We’d like to meet you in person.

Probationary Period

Usually between 7 – 10 days.

Clean and Sober

Free from substances for over 24 hours.

Background Check

Men cannot have unresolved legal issues.

Willingness

Men need to want to change.

Hear Their Stories

For the men at Guiding Light the first step toward starting a new life chapter is learning from the stories that brought them here. From their darkest nights to their first new dawn of many, these men leave nothing out of their gripping testimonials. You see God’s light beginning to work within them.

Stories

LET THE THIEF NO LONGER STEAL, BUT RATHER LET HIM LABOR, DOING HONEST WORK WITH HIS OWN HANDS, SO THAT HE MAY HAVE SOMETHING TO SHARE WITH ANYONE IN NEED. EPHESIANS 4:28

The Gift of Time & Resources

Men in our Back to Work program are provided shelter, three meals a day, use of our computer lab and the one-on-one support they need to become sustainably employed.

Give Help

By donating to Guiding Light, you are helping Grand Rapids men who are lost, homeless or recovering from addiction and substance abuse get off the street and on a payroll.

# Men Accepted into Back to Work program YTD

92%

Men Who Left with a Job YTD

Impact