The Providence Center Receives Grant from Textron
Funding will support ProMail, a social enterprise program with a 20-year track record of employing and training people who face significant barriers to work.
January 3, 2011 (Providence, RI)—The Providence Center is pleased to announce the receipt of a $10,000 grant from Textron Financial Corporation. The grant will allow ProMail, a mail fulfillment house affiliated with The Providence Center, to provide 45 individuals with vocational training opportunities in receptionist, production, driver and computer vocations.
“We are very thankful for Textron’s support,” says Dale K. Klatzker, President/CEO of The Providence Center. “ProMail has empowered hundreds of people to get back to work and lead fulfilling lives despite disabilities, barriers and trauma. Textron’s support will allow more people to benefit from this special business.”
ProMail, Inc., a Rhode Island 501(c) (3) and social enterprise program of The Providence Center (TPC), is a successful mail fulfillment business with a 20-year track record and the mission of employing and training adolescents and adults who face significant barriers to work. Through its training and placement program, ProMail is able to assist people in their efforts to maintain recovery from mental health and substance abuse issues and provide them with job skills that will enable them to find future employment.
Each year, more than 40 TPC clients receive paid, on-the-job training, full-time employment or internships at ProMail. The social enterprise business model works as a revenue-generating entity that accomplishes the mission of training and employing the disabled and providing a bridge from treatment to self-sustainability. The ProMail training programs provide meaningful employment, resume building, and basic and advanced training, which include skills such as professionalism, computer skills and time management. All training is real world─trainees process real clients’ orders that have real deadlines. Long-term success stems from placement in appropriate jobs by a vocational specialist and access to The Providence Center’s full continuum of services including treatment, housing, and vocational and education support for as long as the individual needs help after graduating from the training program.
“At ProMail, we see people gain confidence in themselves and gain the skills they need for long-term employment,” says Jill Tavares, ProMail general manager. “As the fifth largest mailhouse in the state with over 300 customers, ProMail trainees gain the skills they would in any busy business environment, but with the support they need to succeed.”
The Providence Center is at the forefront of innovative approaches to behavioral health care designed to meet the changing needs of the more than 10,000 people served each year. Since The Providence Center opened its doors in 1969, it has been a community fixture, providing people from all walks of life with mental health and substance abuse services in their homes, schools and neighborhoods. In addition to comprehensive high quality behavioral health services, The Providence Center gives people the tools they need to change their lives. Through 39 programs and wraparound services, including food and housing, job training, legal services, primary health care and wellness activities, The Providence Center helps the people it serves to succeed.