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Our Vision
Hopeworks empowers youth to identify and develop their D.R.E.A.M.S. (Dynamic, Realizable Efforts to Attain and Maintain Success) and own their future.
Our Mission
We do this by enhancing the lives of inner-city Camden youth by expanding  the learning opportunities available to them, pointing the way to a future full of hope and working together to create that future. The heart of our program is technology training, which we provide in a safe, respectful, and celebratory atmosphere. We train our youth in state-of-the art computer applications: website design, geographic information services (GIS), computer networking and repair, and video.
Through the Hopeworks program, we specifically seek:
- To reduce the high school dropout rate for African-American and Hispanic youth in Camden, New Jersey.
- To create hope for the future, good-paying jobs, business development and educational opportunities for Camden's young people--specifically African-American and Hispanic youth between the ages of 17 and 25 who have dropped out of school. Such a mission is essential in that our city:
- There are 8,000 young people who have dropped out of high school.1
- The high school dropout rate is close to 70% at the two public high schools.2
- 34% of the city's young people are unemployed.
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Nearly 50% of the city's young people live in poverty
Our Program
We accomplish our mission through a three-part program:
1. An intensive web based training program
- Youth learn advanced skills in website design/development and Geographic Information Services
2. Two non-profit businesses that generate revenue and provide trainees with opportunities to work on real client projects as part of their training:
- A web site design business
3. An internship, job readiness, after-school and educational growth program consisting of:
Hopeworks Formation Program
Individual Personal Development Plans (PDP) are created for each youth and monitored on a weekly basis.
Hope Through School
A 10 month program for youth that are in currently in high school. Hope Through School begins with an six-week summer training in web site design skills. Youth who successfully complete the summer training have an after-school job with us during the academic school year.
Hopeworks Literacy
Hopeworks' Literacy works one on one with each Hopeworks youth to develope an Individual Literacy Plan (ILP). Through intensive small group, individual and one on one work, Hopeworks is seeing an average of a two grade level increase in both numeracy and literacy in our youth!
Hopeworks Internship Program
Working in conjunction with local businesses, Hopeworks has secured a variety of paid internships. These internships help the Hopeworks youth to expand their professional experiences, while being exposed to new work situations. These internships are often "deployed" to support an individual youth's D.R.E.A.M.S.
11990 Census, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.
2Camden County Workforce Investment Plan, Camden County Workforce Investment Board, March 2000, pp. 21-22. All three of the statistics cited above come from this report.
Click here for Census 2000 Statistics about the City of Camden.
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