Allstate Car Donations Charitable Programs
Allstate Car Donations is the arm of a car donation charity, not a commercial fundraising company. All car donation monies go directly to the Center for Living & Learning, which is our IRS approved 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Percentage breakdowns for revenue spent on charitable programs are clearly documented as part of our annual IRS form 990 (which is publicly available). We are rare among charities because we do our own fundraising without the assistance of a commercial fundraising company to get people to donate a vehicle.
Transition to Work Program
When you donate a car to our charity, we direct the funds to support several of our charitable programs but primarily to our "Transition to Work" program. This program mentors individuals with barriers to employment who serve as apprentices for up to a year and a half. The car donation process provides the job training for our clients as the entire process is handled by trained apprentices.We are truly unique in the car donation arena in the way your donation provides a direct benefit to those assisting you.
Supplemental education and training are at the core of the way we approach transition to work. The employment skills training includes customer service, clerical, data entry, and general office skills. Computer training is an integral part of our apprenticeship program. Computer courses include Microsoft Windows XP, Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, FrontPage and HTML coding. Our apprentices are very effectively transitioned into the competitive work force on a self-supporting basis. This is the kind of programming you can expect from the Center for Living & Learning when you donate an auto.
The population served includes:
- Individuals recovering from addiction
- Individuals transitioning from rehabilitation
- Youth-at-risk
- Chronically Unemployed
- Welfare to Work
- No job experience
We accept individuals completing residential and outpatient treatment for drug and alcohol addiction. We accept youths who do not have a high school diploma and come from a variety of situations such as emancipating out of the foster care system, from homes below the poverty level and/or high crime neighborhoods and youths seeking to get out of, or stay out of gangs. We work with individuals who have little or no job skills and are interested in obtaining marketable skills. All apprentices have some barrier to employment but have also demonstrated progress in turning their lives around. Our emphasis is not just on those with barriers, but those who truly have a desire to completely change their lives. After 18 months, most earn well over minimum wage and are worth every penny of it. They are very effectively trained and apprenticed by our mentors in office computer technologies and customer service, or as website developers writing in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). After 18 months most have mastered important computer skills such as Microsoft Windows, Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, FrontPage and HTML website design.
Charity car donation funds make it possible for us to offer these computer courses to our clients, thus making them more marketable and able to compete in today's hi-tech job market. After completing our introductory computer classes, our clients become viable employees with a variety of skills who are ready to join the workforce.
Job Search Preparation Program
At Center for Living and Learning we offer a variety of courses in order to prepare our clients for the the rigors of a job search. The courses include resume writing, interviewing process along with a mock interview, as well as a focus on putting the criminal past behind. The courses are supervised by mentors of our own "Transition to Work Program".
All of our clients receive access to resources to begin their job search. They are given access to computers, telephones and faxes to search for employment. All clients receive individual guidance in every step of the job search process.
We also offer Stress Management and Job Retention groups led by a certified counselor. These groups allow our clients to learn how to cope with job related stress in a healthy manner.
Further, we assist our clients with transportation to and from the center. We also offer a clothing assistance program that will allow our clients to obtain appropriate attire for job interviews.
We offer computer courses to our clients to make them more marketable and succeed in today's hi-tech job market. After they complete our introductory computer classes they will become a competitive employee with a variety of skills ready to go into the workforce.
