Mission: Cara Collective's mission is to unlock the power and purpose within our communities and ourselves to achieve real and lasting success. Through our personal and professional skills training and access to employment opportunities, Cara Collective serves as a leader in poverty alleviation in Chicago and beyond. Since 1991, we have placed more than 7,300 individuals into more than 11,500 jobs at one-year retention rates of 70% or better, catalyzing the same number of families to stop the transfer of poverty from one generation to the next. Additionally, Cara Collective leverages a social enterprise model in which we create or provide access to transitional or temporary jobs in the private sector through our businesses: Cleanslate, a neighborhood beautification business, and Cara Connects, a mission-driven staffing firm. (Less)

The Cara Program (dba Cara Collective) is a 501(c)(3) organization, with an IRS ruling year of 1999, and donations are tax-deductible.