Miami Community Ventures

Miami Community Ventures (MCV) is a collective impact program designed to connect low income, structurally unemployed individuals to living wage jobs and career pathways.  The target audience includes individuals who are public assistance recipients, returning citizens, and/or disabled, with subgroups made up of female heads of households, veterans, and youth ages 19-29.  Based on a proven award-winning model, this program is designed to deliver sustainable long-term economic benefits to the participating individuals, their families, employers, and our community.

MCV is focused on job placement and retention. Clients are provided with wrap-around support services in the areas of job training, child care, success coaching, education (emphasizing financial literacy), social services, and assistance with work-related needs such as uniforms, tools, emergency support, etc. To ensure candidates’ success, these services are provided for an extended period of time: up to one year after hire.  The MCV team works with service providers and community partners that identify candidates, prepare them, provide jobs, and support their success.

MCV offers benefits to the clients placed in jobs, to employers, and to the community. Employees benefit from a new job, steady income, and wrap-around services including a personal success coach committed to keeping them in the job and on a career pathway.  Employers benefit from hiring a vetted employee supported by a success coach, the option to access On the Job Training (OJT) grant dollars, and being positioned for the bottom line benefits of higher retention rates.  The community benefits from a thriving, healthy, inclusive economy.

Partners understand that we are stronger together. The MCV community stakeholder team is powered by a diverse group of partners committed to giving back to our community, to job creation, and sustainable economic development focused on alleviating poverty in our under-served communities. Extending their services and support, these organizations have assumed specific roles to ensure all activities work together to best assist our community clients.  Activities and outcomes are tracked closely.

Miami Community Ventures is available to all residents of Miami-Dade County, with emphasis on communities having poverty rates of 20% or higher.  The Beacon Council Foundation, a 501(c)(3) of the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, serves as the program’s convener.  

Job Types

Diverse | Lightly Skilled | Unskilled | Living Wage

Advisory Group Members

Provides advisory support for the advancement of the Miami Community Ventures program.

George Acevedo

Divisional Director, Managing Director

JPMorgan Chase Bank

Eduardo Padron, Ph.D.

President Emeritus

Miami Dade College

Penny Shaffer, Ph.D.

Market President, South Florida

Florida Blue

Funders

Navigators (Service Providers)

Community Work Training Program

FIU Construction Trades

Opa-locka CDC

Overtown Youth Center

Community Partners

For More Information

Sheri Colas-Gervais
Vice President & Executive Director
Miami Community Ventures