Who We Are, What We Do | Vision, Mission, History | The Harborquest Advantage | Leadership
Our Vision
All
members of society should have good opportunities for decent jobs and
hope for a better way of life.
Our Mission
To use appropriate employment to provide opportunity for a better life
for those disenfranchised from the mainstream economy.
Our History
Harborquest was founded in 1970 on Chicago’s North Side by its
current president, John Plunkett, and a group of friends who believed
that grassroots social activism can make a real difference in people’s
lives. The organization began as Just Jobs, Inc. with the goal of bringing
justice to the temporary help industry.
Just Jobs soon became the country’s first non-profit to run a
temporary staffing service focused on creating employment opportunities
for residents of low-income, inner city neighborhoods. It provided these
workers with decent living wages and ensured that their overtime hours,
unemployment compensation claims, workers’ compensation claims
and taxes withheld were properly processed and paid. By 1976, Just Jobs
had earned the James Brown IV Award for Excellence in Community Service
from the Chicago Community Trust.
By 1986, the organization had a top share of the light industrial contracting
market in the Chicago region and employed more than 800 people per day.
By the 1990s, most light industrial manufacturing jobs had moved from
the city to the suburbs, so Just Jobs responded by providing long-term
transportation to low-income workers. The name of the organization was
changed to Suburban Job-Link in 1991 to reflect this focus on transportation.
In 1995, with funding from the (Chicago) Mayor's Office of Workforce
Development and the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development,
Suburban Job-Link established the Job Oasis facility in Bensenville,
Illinois. (Bensenville, a suburb northwest of Chicago, is a warehouse
and manufacturing center near O’Hare airport.) The Job Oasis provided
a realistic connection between city jobseekers and suburban employers.
It provided job search and transportation assistance to workers who previously
had no access to entry-level/lower-skilled jobs beyond the reach of public
transportation. One such innovative business/community partnership with
a large suburban firm resulted in Suburban Job-Link receiving the 1999
Masterworks Award from the Council on Foundations and the Dayton Hudson
Foundation (now the Target Foundation).
In 2003, Suburban Job-Link merged with STRIVE Chicago Employment Service,
Inc., an internationally recognized training program based on the successful
STRIVE* model operating in New York since 1984. Every Harborquest member
begins by participating in STRIVE Chicago’s intensive job-readiness
program, which includes at least 100 hours of work preparation in a classroom
setting, and one-on-one counseling to help them overcome a variety of
barriers to employment.
As one of 22 STRIVE affiliates in the United States, England, Northern
Ireland, Scotland and Israel, STRIVE Chicago is the longest-running affiliate
outside of New York. As a result of the merger, Harborquest is Chicago’s
only licensed provider of this powerful, paradigm-shifting training model.
In 2005, as a result of the merger, we changed our name to Harborquest,
Inc., to reflect our commitment to bringing disadvantaged Chicagoans
hope through job opportunities, and providing a “port in the storm” through
tough economic times.
Harborquest has provided temporary work experience to nearly 40,000
Chicago-area residents. We have also helped more than 15,000 earn regular
full-time jobs with other employers. Today, we’re offering new services,
such as our 20/20 View — a trial-basis
placement service that lets employers assess applicants’ performance
at their workplaces before committing to hiring them for full-time positions.
Staffing services has always been a tough industry. Yet Harborquest
has managed to be successful despite a constantly changing labor market
by giving businesses the individual services they need to be successful.
Harborquest
remains fully committed to simultaneously serving our
workers and raising the staffing industry’s standards for integrity,
professionalism and human resource development.
* See www.strivenewyork.org for
more information. |
