Nonprofit StreetWise Partners brings together unemployed and underemployed adults with volunteer mentors to create a social network that will help launch their careers.

“We have a very structured model that is very intentional around professional skills building and social capital building. Eighty percent of jobs are found through networking. Who you know matters,” explains Shari Krull, the nonprofit’s CEO. 

WorkingNation sat down with Krull at Presented by JFF Horizons – See Beyond 2022 in New Orleans.

“Our mentoring program is very unique. We apply a two-to-one mentoring model, so it’s two mentors to one mentee. So it’s just double the network, double the access. Our mentors arrange for at least four informational interviews for our participants, so the network starts to increase” she explains.

Krull says hard skills are not enough, so there is a focus on soft skills as well.

“How do you introduce yourself with confidence if somebody asks you in an interview, tell me about yourself. How do you leverage a professional network? How do you identify relationships so that you have a professional reference? How do you dress for particular interviews? What should you put on your resume? All of these skills that unless you were born into a household where you could absorb them through osmosis, you’re really out of luck.”

Krull says StreetWise Partners is proud of the outcome this social capital building has achieved – than 70% of its graduates are employed within a year and starting annual salaries increase over the year from $10,000 to $60,000. 

Find out more about StreetWise Partners.