Haven’t used the gift cards you got for the holidays yet and never will? We will use them! Did you know that between 6 to 10 percent of all gift cards go unused?  In fact, the national retail federation says $41 billion worth of gift cards have not been redeemed since 2005.  And many stores charge a gift card inactivity fee that will slowly eat away at the gift card balance.

Don’t let your gifts go to waste!

The Hopeworks Gift Cards for Hope campaign will utilize the gift cards you’ve been given but will never use. If you know that you will not get around to using your gift card, send them to us! We will put any and every one of them to good use by purchasing things we need.

Gift cards for electronics will be used for our technology training; cards to clothing stores will help our youth get work-ready; cards for book stores will help our reading rooms; and cards for restaurants will help us with our food blog or be used as rewards.  Whatever gift cards you won’t use, we will!

Donate your unused gift cards and don’t let them go to waste!  Just put them in an envelope with your name, email address (so we can thank you), and the amount on the card.  Then send them to: Gift Cards for Hope, ℅ Hopeworks N Camden, 543 State St. Camden, NJ 08102.

If you have friends or family members that you know will not use their gift cards, share this with them. Turn your gift card into a Gift of Hope!

It’s that time of year again!  The Hopeworks GIS team is gearing up for the development of the 2012 Camden Street Map.  The team will be hard at work over the next few months developing advertising, updating the map, and adding new features.  Four members of our team will be working with Photoshop, Illustrator, ArcGIS, Salesforce and more to bring this project together. The finished product will be ready for delivery in June, don’t miss out!  This year’s map is sure to be the best one yet, so make sure your business or organization is represented.  To find out how you can advertise, contact Michael Sontag (michael@hopeworks.org).

On Sunday, March 25, 2012, Hopeworks will be having our second annual Roll for Hope, a fun afternoon of bowling. Come out with the family and friends to enjoy 3 hours of unlimited bowling at Pinsetter Bowling, a 2 hour buffet, and the opportunity to bid on wonderful auction items. All to help Hopeworks to continue empowering Camden’s youth through technology training. So register today, tickets are only $35 each:http://www.hopeworks.org/roll-for-hope/.  You can also check out some of the pictures from last year.

We are currently looking for sponsors!  Help us spread the word!  Tell all your friends and invite them to our event on Facebook.  Or re-tweet on Twitter with hashtag #HWRolls.  Can’t wait to see you there!

Its official!  We can now start our own Hopeworks College Softball team!  That’s right we currently have 10 Hopeworks trainees in college:  Jon, DJ, Shawn, Lewis, Dante, Alfredo, Krystle, Patrick, Keenan and Joe ,who we will feature today.  Joe has completed the Hopeworks training and earned an internship in our web site development business. He intends on making his major the pre-nursing program in order to prepare to transfer to a four year nursing program. Hopeworks helped Joe work out some issues with financial aid and some academic issues from his previous semester. When asked about the upcoming semester, Joe responded: “Returning to school makes me feel nervous and excited. I know I will be successful, but I have small fears that I will struggle at first.” Hopeworks is proud to work with youth like Joe to ensure that they are successful in college. We can engage the struggle and make sure that Joe’s return is strong.  To follow our college team like Hopeworks ‘N Camden on Facebook!  We now have helped over 135 Camden youth start college!

We also will spend time learning about Mexico, discovering its long, rich, and exciting history, and learning about the art and culture of different people. Going to a place where we will see, firsthand, this modern city mixed with the ancient history and current day struggles will be a life-changing opportunity.

I have experienced the change in my life from seeing the living conditions in Mexico and it had made me realize to be thankful for the little things in life. I went on the first trip to Mexico this past summer and instantly realized that the goal for the next trip was to expose more people to the kindness of the people but also to the harsh living conditions and the little opportunity the people of Mexico have. Now our team is stronger and has added five more people who are excited to visit and experience a new culture.

The team of six Hopework’s youth and three staff has been fundraising since the beginning of September with fun and creative ideas like Dinners, A Wine and Chocolate Party, and gift wrapping at the mall. We also sent out letters to many of their close friends and family. With all the support from the letters and the many people who came to the events, now the Team is getting ready serve food, help tutor, and teach freeware for five days in Curenavaca, Mexico.

We’re going to Mexico, but you can be there in spirit too by following us on Twitter @HopeworksCamden, communicating with us using Twitter #hwMexico, and liking our Facebook Fan page Hopeworks N’ Camden. You can ask use questions and send comments while we’re away and we’ll do our best to respond.  We will also share lots of videos and photos when we return next week.

Posted by Ruben Santiago

Check out the news!  Two pieces of recognition for Hopeworks Executive Director Father Jeff.  First, he was a finalist to be named 2011 Citizen of the Year by The Philadelphia Inquirer.  And this month he was named JerseyMan of the Month by JerseyMan Magazine.  Click here to read the write up!   Congratulations to FJ and keep up the great work!

Impactful.  Life Changing.  Awesome.  Inspiring.  These are the comments that echo throughout the reflections of the youth and staff who participated in our Mexico Service Trip to Cuernavaca, Mexico.  Visiting some of the poorest of the poor in Mexico was an eye-opening experience for everyone, and the trip has provoked many questions in our hearts and minds:    Why does poverty like this exist?  What role do I have in it?  How can we help?  How will I take advantage of all of the options that I have in my life?  How can we keep this connection with youth from Cuernavaca going?  The group visited  projects run by a non profit named VAMOS!   The visits included small schools, projects for the elderly and computer labs in remote colonias.  Click here for an article in the Courier Post about our trip!  Click here for coverage on NBC10! Click ere for coverage in the Philadelphia Business Journal. Check out some of the youth’s reflections, and a short video on the trip here.

Hopeworks is proud to announce that it was awarded a $30,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation President’s Grant Fund of the Princeton Area Community Foundation. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is a private philanthropy located in NJ, supporting various initiatives and innovative projects to address health and health care issues.  Their program administrative assistants group was given an opportunity to provide a one-time grant to an organization embarking on a new project or perhaps seeking to expand program ideas on an existing project.  Hopeworks was invited to participate and competed with other organizations from across the country for this award.   The goal of the RWJF was to fund projects that have the potential to positively affect individuals and create an impact in the community.    Hopeworks will be using the funds to continue to build and expand C.R.I.B. programming and to help cover the costs of youth salaries. Thanks to Kia Muldrow, the administrative assistant who invited us to participate and to everyone who reviewed our proposal.  To learn more about RWJF, please visit www.RWJF.org

In a world of Angry Birds on iPads, games are everywhere. Additionally, any time you go to the grocery store you scan a card for customer rewards points. These systems have built in incentives: getting to the next level, earning a coupon or winning the game. To a great deal, our world is being “gamified.” Hopeworks is making the most of a great opportunity to partner with Bunchball, an industry leader in gamification, to help us recognize, incentivize and reward trainee performance. Using Nitro, Bunchball’s new Salesforce.com interface, we have set up a series of challenges for trainees to accomplish relating to attendance and timely completion of goals in training, literacy, formation and our web development internships. By achieving several milestones, trainees will earn points that they will use to earn rewards at various levels, such as as bus passes, movie tickets or an iTunes gift card. Our small challenges are design to help the trainees focus on little things they can do to be successful here. Watch out for more updates.