SYRACUSE — Onondaga County has awarded the nonprofit In My Father’s Kitchen a $200,000 contract for the Hire Ground initiative, a workforce-development program that targets area homeless people. A joint City of Syracuse and Onondaga County selection committee chose the local nonprofit after it submitted a proposal. The pilot program begins no later than May […]
SYRACUSE — Onondaga County has awarded the nonprofit In My Father’s Kitchen a $200,000 contract for the Hire Ground initiative, a workforce-development program that targets area homeless people.
A joint City of Syracuse and Onondaga County selection committee chose the local nonprofit after it submitted a proposal. The pilot program begins no later than May 1.
“It’s an alternative to panhandling,” says John Tumino, who co-founded the nonprofit with his wife, Leigh-Ann Tumino, in 2011.
John Tumino joined Onondaga County Executive J. Ryan McMahon II and Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh for the Feb. 4 announcement of the program provider. It was held at the Ziebart location at 980 Hiawatha Boulevard West in Syracuse. Ziebart’s franchisee, Richard Lester, is a member of the board of trustees for In My Father’s Kitchen.
“We’re going to give them an alternative and an option by doing a day-labor [program] and helping them maybe think about not panhandling and actually working for five hours and getting some money at the end of the day,” says Tumino, noting that participants will earn a stipend of $50 for their work.
He also called the program “an extension to what we’re already doing” at In My Father’s Kitchen.
The Hire Ground program has a $200,000 budget, but Tumino had to provide an additional $20,000 in 10 percent matching funds, which donors covered, he says.
About the program
In the Hire Ground program, In My Father’s Kitchen will take a van out in the community on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and give the homeless a chance to get in and go to a job site that either the county, the city, or perhaps the private sector will provide. The van driver and a caseworker will accompany the participants to their job sites.
The people that the program will target “aren’t even employable yet,” says Tumino. “The majority of our friends are addicted to some kind of substance or have severe mental-health issues going on and some have them happening simultaneously,” he adds.
In the initiative, In My Father’s Kitchen plans to collaborate with community agencies.
As he was preparing his proposal for the program, Tumino says he learned that several agencies have workforce-development programs that can help people in need.
“If anybody graduates out of our program, we’re going to refer them …to these organizations that can help them build their skills … How do you do a résumé, how do you sit down for an interview and maybe go through a five-week course of getting ready to work in a restaurant,” says Tumino.
