We hope you are enjoying the holiday season with family and friends!! This year at Two Wings we had 40 volunteer facilitators teaching classes at our Qualified Academy. We are so grateful to have maintained an all volunteer security team throughout the year. These men were a helpful presence before, during, and after our evening classes. We were also lucky enough to have a team of volunteers provide continuing child care for our clients so that they could attend class without the added stress and expense of finding sitters.
In 2016 we provided 108 hours of job training, 7 employment opportunities, 1 continued education opportunity, and 7 mentorships. We are so proud of every graduate from this year’s Qualified program! Many of them have moved in to full time or part time work. One graduate has even transitioned to working full time for her own business!!
Two Wings has received generous financial donations and fundraising support to help our team continue their efforts here in the Los Angeles area. We also received many donated outfits and professional clothing for our clients to wear to interviews and to their new jobs.
And we can’t forget all the fun events!! We had High Tea, a Spring Fashion show. In the summer we hosted a volunteer bbq where we were able to get helpful feedback from our volunteer and intern teams. We had community events and family dinners! Career mixers, and calls to action when our clients needed help moving, or finding new furniture! Our clients even enjoyed a field trip to The Gourmandise School to experience a top notch cooking class. We have felt very embraced and supported by the local community. Thank you to everyone who has contributed!
In August we moved from downtown LA to Baldwin Hills. Volunteers came together to pack, move, decorate, and be a welcome presence and support to us. We could not have done it without you!
This year we were blessed with some amazing new interns! Our interns have made a huge contribution to our work and to our continued efforts to effect positive change in the lives of survivors of human trafficking.
We strengthened and continued our partnership with The RightWay Foundation, and we look forward to continued collaboration with them and organizations like them all across Southern California.
Perhaps in the most exciting news of the year TWO of our recent graduates were invited to speak at the TEDx Talks in Beverly Hills. TEDxWomen was a one-day event celebrating inspiring female creators and influential change-makers. Congratulations Tika and Monique for being a part of this amazing event!
It has taken many man-hours, studying, preparing, crying and laughter for us to get where we have. It has truly been a blessing to meet each and every volunteer, and client as we have walked through this journey of discovery toward their career goals. All in all we have seen many victories this year, both big and small. As we transition from 2016 to 2017 we are very excited to see what this next season holds for Two Wings!!
If you or someone you know is interested in becoming part of the volunteer team at Two Wings, or applying for an internship please contact us at info@withtwowings.org We would love to meet you and help you become a part of our team!
Written by Jessika Fuhrmaneck
Lead Writer, Two Wings
www.jessikafuhrmaneck.com
www.jessikafuhrmaneck.wordpress.com
www.instagram.com/jessikafuhrmaneck
www.twitter.com/jessfuhrmaneck