Laundromat helps foster kids find jobs
“This provided me with the opportunity to see I could have my own business.” Hanan Dema Former foster kid who was also Christy Moore’s first apprentice
Christy Moore had forgotten how applying for a job can be so intimidating to a kid.
But after watching a foster child she was mentoring struggle to ask for a job application at a local Chipotle, something clicked. The result has opened up job opportunities for other foster kids.
Moore had recently launched Social Spin, a business that seeks to transform laundromats into community connectors, places where people can pick up advice on social services while waiting out the wash and dry cycle.
She decided to use the central Phoenix business to provide job training to young adults aging out of foster care.
“It was really that ‘aha’ moment I had with Joe at Chipotle,” she said of the young man she was mentoring. “This is a young, competent man who wasn’t confident to even ask for an application.”
After pep talks and some pointers, Joe walked to the front counter and filled out an application. And Moore amended her business plan to include
apprenticeships for foster kids. If Joe needed guidance, she figured, what about the hundreds of kids who age out of Arizona’s foster-care system every year?
A former social worker, Moore figured her fledgling business could provide a safe and supportive job-training experience, all helped by the length of the wash cycle.
“That’s 25 minutes of downtime when you put your first load of laundry in,” she said. That creates an opportunity to work on life skills, from talking about how to develop healthy relationships to proper attire for a job interview.
Moore structured apprenticeships of five weeks to three months, both fulland part-time, and connected with Jewish Family and Children’s Services to refer youth who are nearing 18, when they age out of the foster system.
Jewish Family, a nonprofit, pays the young workforce while Moore provides training in the basics of running the coin-operated business, such as how to deal with broken machines, customer refunds and even potential contracts. In between, she works on broader job skills.
To date, about six foster youth have participated.
Hanan Dema was her first apprentice and a skeptical one at that.
“I couldn’t understand what she was doing,” Dema said of her new boss. “No one’s going to a laundromat for social services.”
But she quickly caught on to Moore’s vision to use the space to not only clean clothes but also knit together a community. It impressed her so much that Dema changed her college major from psychology to social work.
A foster child from age 11, Dema said she never expected to be in the childwelfare system for seven years. “I was supposed to only be in the system for 90 days, and I ended up being there ‘til 18,” she said.
Although Moore is hoping to get Dema to help open Social Spin’s Mesa location, Dema isn’t certain her future lies in laundromats. But she’s not straying too far from the social-service angle.
Her goal is to buy an apartment complex and provide housing to foster kids aging out of the system.
“This provided me with the opportunity to see I could have my own business,” she said.
About this report
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