JCCGCI's
Crown Heights Career Assessment Program (CH CAP)
Celebrates Another Year of Success
Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island's (JCCGCI) Crown Heights Career Assessment Program (CH CAP) announced another year of effective programing. CH CAP, under the leadership of Program Director Yossi Ginzberg, provides targeted, culturally sensitive employment services which guide participants toward a career path based on their aptitude and interests. When relevant, CH CAP then directs them to the most suitable training and education options, and offers limited scholarships to help lower-income individuals afford the education and training needed to reach their career goals. CH CAP also assists clients in perfecting their resumes, with interview skills, and with job placement.

Since its launch in 2008, the CH CAP has set into a motion a transformation in the Crown Heights community for both the clients who were directly assisted by CH CAP, and for the extended population impacted by the program's achievements.

The success stories that CH CAP has facilitated are numerous, with more than 3,200 clients served. Among those clients, more than 6,100 career counseling sessions were offered, and more than 1,115 were placed at jobs. In addition to this, in 2022 CH CAP marked a major milestone, issuing the 650th educational grant since the program's inception - and then quickly surpassing that landmark achievement.
Yossi Ginzberg, Program Director, conducting a training session.
Some Success Stories:
In 2017, a young man came to CH CAP offices desperately seeking help. Foreign-born, his English language skills were poor, and his situation appeared bleak. With no American schooling, higher education appeared almost unattainable especially when combined with his need to work constantly just to feed his family.

In meetings at CH CAP, attempts were made to find solutions, but success seemed unlikely as the lack of funds or connections seemed to make self-employment in any field unlikely while his lack of credentials or language skills posed significant issues in most areas. In a wholly serendipitous moment, he was asked what he did in his rare free time, and his response was that he loves to cook when he had the opportunity.

This spontaneous response led to CH CAP suggesting and later assisting him to enroll in a culinary program and obtain an education in commercial cooking skills as well as credentials and licenses in kitchen safety and sanitary requirements. He quickly obtained a job working in a restaurant. As his skills and fame improved, he moved on to work in better and more prestigious restaurants.

In 2020, a few months before the pandemic started, he made some baked goods as gifts for friends celebrating a holiday, The rave reviews led almost immediately to a small private business in addition to his regular job, baking and selling baked goods for events on special order. The business grew quickly.

By the time the effects of the pandemic led to the restaurant closing and his losing his job, he had developed enough of a client base that he transferred almost seamlessly into a private-label bakery business.
In 2010, a young man came to CH CAP seeking a career with a future. Helping him get a head-start on a career wasn’t hard-- he liked working with numbers and sitting at a desk, so educating him about opportunities in accounting was easy as was assisting him with getting a jump on obtaining credentials by helping him enroll in an accounting course which in effect gives a two-year degree in five months.

He successfully finished the course and was quickly able to get a good bookkeeper position at a local firm, where he worked for several months while continuing towards his BA degree. Much to the surprise of CH CAP, when he was called about a year later to inquire about his educational progress, he reported having left his job to start an auto-leasing company.

He explained that he was justified in doing so and explained what he had discovered: Uber and their competitors had become major players in the New York taxi industry. Drivers were abandoning leasing taxis from medallion owners in droves for greener pastures driving their own cars and retaining significantly higher percentages of the income with less risk once the requirement for the very expensive city medallions was lifted.

Holding many would-be such drivers back was the most basic requirement to drive for Uber, Lyft, or any other such company, one had to have a new or almost-new car. While this would seem to be a low bar for self-employment, the profile of the typical taxi driver in New York had neither the budget to buy nor the credit needed to lease a new vehicle.

This young man had seen this niche in the market and taken advantage of it by opening a leasing company where he had direct, almost-daily information on each driver so he was able to minimize his credit exposure yet still take advantage of the fact that he was the only place they could get the needed new car, and they happily paid a premium for this.

At last report he had expanded into regular auto leasing, leasing specially equipped vehicles for transporting wheelchair-accessible vehicles, and commercial vehicles.

He now employs 77 people, largely from the local community. His sharp perception of the opportunity and his accounting background, truncated as it was, has led him to great success.
This grantee has been a CH CAP client for over three years. Much of that time was spent studying on his own online until he achieved a significant level of knowledge of IT, and two years ago he got a position at a local website-building company. Because of his lack of credentials and professional experience, he had to start at almost minimum wage. Over the past two years, he has worked his way up to $24 per hour with no benefits, but this isn’t enough- his 2021 total income was $27,000.

Now, however, with his experience and CH CAP help, he was able to start a job search with much more knowledge and did significantly better. He has been offered a job with another company which specializes in cybersecurity, and this new position comes with a $75K salary.

The only fly in the ointment is that they are requiring that he obtain certification from CompTIA, a recognized authority in the field. To do this he needs to take their test, but he doesn't have the cost of the test fee to spare.

Thus, he asked CH CAP to fund this, which we did. He got the job.
This 23-year-old grantee has a younger brother with severe mental health issues. As a young teenager, our client was enthralled and watched carefully how the various therapists dealing with the case worked to improve this little boy’s life, which they did successfully until he was able to attend school with his peers.

This experience gave her the drive and inspiration to start studying towards a career in the therapy field, eventually settling on occupational therapy as the best track for her.

She is now in her second year of a three-year program leading towards licensing as an occupational therapist. She has some help from her parents and some government funding but barring a miracle will graduate with a lot of debt. Her husband is a real-estate broker and barely covering household expenses, and not able to help much towards tuition costs.

She asked CH CAP for a grant to assist with covering the clinical internship required for her licensing as a therapist in New York. This was awarded and she plans to graduate in May 2023.She is now already working as a sonographer in Brooklyn.
About JCCGCI:
Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island (JCCGCI) is a community-based organization with a citywide scope, providing a wide-spectrum of senior citizen, vocational, educational, crime-reduction, community revitalization and related services benefiting all segments of the population. JCCGCI is also a technical assistance provider, offering capacity building services to nonprofits in all five boroughs through its NonProfit HelpDesk division (www.nphd.org). With 40 program sites throughout New York City staffed by over 350 social service professionals, JCCGCI assists an average of upwards of 2,500 needy individuals and families each day.
A Community Based Organization with a Citywide Impact
3001 West 37th Street, Brooklyn NY 11224
718.449.5000 | jccgci.org