on the cover / By Yelena Kisler

Thrift Store Angels

His first training was with Eva. They sorted kids’ clothes. Mike had never had a real job before and was at the end of the line in terms of foster care assistance. “I think he was at a crossroads,” says Eva. “When he started he wasn’t that secure and well spoken.” She showed him how to determine sizes, mark the prices and where everything should be located in the store. “She was very patient,” says Mike. “She would show me something and if I didn’t get it, like, right away she would show me again until I did.”

In his time at Angels of Hope, Mike learned how to show up on time, work the register and express himself well. “When he started he used to have kind of a stutter,” says Eva. “And now he hardly ever does.” As time went on Mike learned all of the basic work skills he needed. He started off sorting clothes and eventually learned the register after observing Nick for a while.

Eva thinks a lot of the progress the youth make in the program has to do with the way that they handle interaction — the low-pressure atmosphere. This means that if someone spends all day organizing the sporting goods shelf, you don’t point out what they did wrong first. “I make sure to praise them for everything that’s done right and then say, ‘Maybe it would be better if …’ or ‘Next time we should try it this way,’” says Eva. Even if someone doesn’t do a single thing right all day but makes an honest effort, Eva says, “at the end of the day I [still] make sure to let ’em know, y’know, ‘You did a really good job and I’m really glad to have you.’ That kind of thing.”

To Mike the best part of the store was the support he got from the people there. “They really help you out a lot,” he says, flashing a smile that exposes his missing tooth. “Like, if you need something, like clothes or dishes or anything really, they will try to get it for you.”

The store lets the staff look through the donations before they go out on the racks to see if there is something they need. Former employees still stop by to say hello or bring someone pizza. When business is slow the girls spend time gossiping about the little things in life in the clothes room. “There’s a lot of laughing in there,” says Eva.

In addition to the social support that the store provides, Angels also teaches fundamental job skills. Those who train here learn the concepts of showing up for their shift, what to wear to interviews, how to clock in, why their pay reflects the hours they put in, and so on. Mike says he learned to “just man up, like, get your money straight.” According to Shannon the fundamentals are not being taught “to kids in the foster system who get bounced around or who are homeless … [they] really don’t have the basic skills necessary to get and maintain a job, and they can kind of work that out here with a forgiving environment and some structure.”

Shannon hopes to see the program expand through government grants and increased business. “We could offer them more time here and more training on our own dollar, as opposed to through [government programs],” Shannon says. She would like to see more living skills incorporated into the training, like how to open and balance a bank account, how to interview — “skills to help them set up a life after foster care for themselves in the community.”

The type of training received at Angels depends largely on the program with which the individual is involved. Those who come though ILS tend to not have much, if any, prior work experience, and therefore need more extensive training than those who come through Welfare-to-Work. Furthermore, since each person has different abilities and skills, the rate at which they are able to learn each task varies.

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