I'm Concerned for Your Future, Not Your Past

When I conduct the interviews for project Five-Star, I'm likely to get a wide variety of backgrounds. Some of them have spent time in prison, some have done drugs, drank alcohol to excess or wasted money gambling.

I've wasted my share of my life. I have never taken drugs, drank much alcohol (I hate the taste, to be honest) never spent time in prison (though a few of you might think I belong there).

I have gambled in my past. Even now I avoid casinos because if I go in, all my money goes out. So I have had somewhat of a tendency for addictive behavior.

But when I choose the participants, I'll be looking past their past (yes, pun intended). I don't care if they used to take drugs, if they used to drink until they passed out, if they used to blow a paycheck on a single night of binge drinking and whoring. I don't care what their sexual persuasion is (just don't come on to me, please).

I care about the here and now. Don't come into my classroom drunk, high or filled with amorous thoughts. Come prepared to learn. Come prepared to take what happened in the past and leave it behind. Come prepared to change. Even if you've already changed, I'll change you more.

Leave your prison mentality at the door. Leave your gangsta raps in the gutter. Leave your pants that are sagging - well, pull them up. Come dressed for success. If you don't have the clothes, just maybe I'll have the funds to donate the clothes to you. Maybe I can reach an agreement with a clothing store to give you a suit or two at no cost to you and a lower cost to Project Five-Star.

Come with a clean shirt and a tie. I know the shelter has a laundry, use it.

Don't try to lie to me. I've told a few lies and heard a lot more. If you don't want to tell me the whole truth during our interview, that's okay. But I can't help you if you hide things from me. If I accept you, and it turns out you did 10-20 for burglary, I can't help you get a job. If you're honest, though, and do the work I ask you to, and prove to me that you've changed, then I'll stand behind you and put my reputation on the line.

I'm concerned about your future. I want you to get that great job doing something you like with decent pay and a chance for advancement. I want to see you get an apartment or even a house to call your own, in a decent neighborhood. I'd like to see you get a car. We all want the best life we can get. We all want to do things we enjoy rather than be stuck somewhere for minimum wage just waiting for the shift to end so we can go back to a dingy apartment in a rough neighborhood, filled with the temptations that got us into this mess in the first place.

We'd all like to be as far from that as possible. Me included. So come prepared.

And you! The one reading this article who has all that stuff that we homeless only dream about! You, with the fancy car, the six-figure income and the large bank account, who tells people like us to get a job. Put your hand in your pocket, pull out your wallet and GIVE until it hurts, because all it takes is one bad stock, one bad investment, and you're in the same boat as tens of thousands of us who struggle to survive.

And if that happens, I'll reach my hand out to you and give you the same opportunity I give everyone else.

It Starts in Raleigh

It starts small. One man (me) teaching 20 people how to build and repair computers.

It starts with the first $5,000 in donations earmarked to go toward hiring a lawyer to help Project Five-Star become a Non-Profit 501 c3 Corporation. It starts with me finding volunteers to serve on the Board of Directors.

It starts with finding an office or better yet, a storefront where I can set up a conference table and then interview homeless men and women about their experiences and then see who, out of what will likely be hundreds of applications, stands the best chance of getting certified and getting a job outside of Project Five-Star.

It starts with your donation and who knows where it will end.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Michael Fox, Founder. Project Five-Star

Project Five-Star: A Glimmer of Hope?

Friday, I sent emails off to the CEO's of Red Hat and Cisco, asking for a donation of software and training material for my computer class. Today I heard from someone at Red Hat, explaining that while they do not give away their Enterprise software, there are sources for software that approximate the Red Hat experience, namely fedora.org and centos.org. She mentioned that while the software may be a bit out of date compared to Red Hat, it should fit our needs all right.
She was not sure if training materials could be provided, but she will check on that. I have not heard from Cisco yet, but there is time.
I have downloaded Fedora and will put it on my laptop to play around with it at a later time.
I have been crunching some numbers lately, on how much just the classes would cost to produce. There are two sets: One where I pay the members, and one where I don't. I figure if we go by a straight salary of $200/week for each member, times a consistent 20 members training for six months, over the period of a year the costs will be $208,000 just for their salaries, plus the other expenses, including my own salary. I'd be happy making $25,000/year. Then there's the cost of the office, which I haven't looked into yet. Then there's the cost of the computers, assuming I can't get them donated.
If I go the way of paying the members, I'll need someone to handle payroll, either outsourced or in-house. Then there are taxes.
I suspect in the long run I'll need to forgo paying the members until we can prove that we can produce certifications. I'm not happy about it, but I'm realistic enough to know that people won't donate to pay homeless people. I want to get the party started, so I'll make sacrifices. I plan to explore other means of getting money into this start-up and I'll throw ideas out there from time to time.
Feedback will be appreciated!