What's Happening at WHW WHW Celebrates Over 25,000 Clients Served and One Year in Santa Ana! Open House and Anniversay Celebration Friday, December 16th 10:00 am to 3:00 pm Lunch served at 12:00 and Presentation at 12:30 pm
Come celebrate wonderful milestones with Clients, Volunteers, Donors, Corporate Sponsors, Board Members and Staff
1800 East McFadden Avenue, Suite 1A, Santa Ana RSVP: Amanda Hastings 949-631-2333 or amandah@whw.org
WHW is pleased to announce the recipients of the First Annual Employment Leader Award of Orange County!
Mari Kurtz is the CEO and President of OC Metals, Inc. and Cal Pac Sheet Metal. Despite enormous hurdles and a sluggish economy, Ms. Kurtz took OC Metals from a company on the verge of bankruptcy to a profitable growing company. Ms. Kurtz, with no prior business experience took on the day to day operations of OC Metals after her husband's sudden death. She was recently honored as a Remarkable Women by the National Association of Women Business Owners and is involved in several Orange County organizations, including the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce, the Building Industry Association and Habitat for Humanity.
Trina Norman is the Anaheim Package Division Manager for UPS. Ms. Norman is an unstoppable business woman, striving to build and motivate others through community service, mentoring and developing others to achieve their dreams. UPS is extremely committed to the community, providing countless hours of volunteer support to local nonprofits, despite a difficult economy and changes in staffing structure. Ms. Norman is a tireless advocate for several nonprofit organizations in Orange County, including WHW.
Kristin Byrnes is the CEO of Project Access, Inc., an Orange County nonprofit organization whose mission is to be the leading provider of vital health, education and employment services to families, children and seniors living in low-income housing communities. Under the direction of Ms. Byrnes, Project Access has grown from 8 centers in Southern California to 37 centers in 3 regions of the state. She also led the development of an evaluation system which provides feedback for improvement as well as quantitative measures of the impact of Project Access' services.
WHW congratulates the award recipients and the many nominees who make contributions to employment success in Orange County. The Employment Leader Awards will be presented at WHW's Gala on April 21, 2012 at the Marriott Newport Beach Hotel and Spa. All proceeds from the Gala will benefit WHW's Employment Success Program. Underwriting and sponsorship opportunities are also available for this event. For more information, please contact Janie Wolicki at 949.631.2333 x316, or janiew@whw.org.
Project Interview
The National Association of Women REO Brokerages (NAWRB), based in Irvine, CA, is contributing staff and resources as the inaugural site of the WHW’s new Job Development component called “Project Interview.” Project Interview encompasses three phases: resume reviews, phone interviews and culminates in live one-on-one interviews.After all phases are conducted, thorough feedback is given to all potential employees and a “winner” is chosen! Designed to take WHW's widely recognized job search training program into a real world setting, Project Interview allows WHW clients to experience an actual interview process from start to finish with a real employer but a fictitious job opening. The opportunity that NAWRB is providing for WHW clients is priceless! This critical fieldwork experience allows job seekers to apply their training and test their interviewing skills with feedback from an actual employer in order to perfect their interviewing skills for when a real job opportunity presents itself.
Practice makes perfect and NAWRB knows this to be true! If you would like to support WHW job seekers by opening the doors to your company with this three week commitment, please contact Brateil Aghasi at brateila@whw.org.
Farmers & Merchants Bank Clothing Drive
After two days of pickups at 13 Long Beach and Orange County locations, F&M’s clothing drive was our second largest drive of the year! F&M Bank provided customized signage, mass emails, staff and customer support.
Collectively, F&M donated over 2,000 items, supporting over 250 WHW job seekers bringing them one critical step towards attaining employment! Thank-you F&M Bank!
Boeing Clothing Drive
WHW's largest clothing drive of the year was thanks to the generosity of Boeing employees who spent two weeks in September collecting over 4,000 pieces of men and women’s professional clothing and accessories for the non-profit organization. All Boeing locations in Orange County, as well as Long Beach and Los Angeles enthusiastically participated in the 4th annual clothing drive.
It took 20 Boeing employees at the various sites to lead the project and it took WHW three days and many van trips to collect all the clothing. Thanks to you Boeing hundreds of disadvantaged job seekers will be supported this year!
Mari Kurtz is the CEO and President of OC Metals, Inc. and Cal Pac Sheet Metal. Despite enormous hurdles and a sluggish economy, Ms. Kurtz took OC Metals from a company on the verge of bankruptcy to a profitable growing company. Ms. Kurtz, with no prior business experience took on the day to day operations of OC Metals after her husband's sudden death. She was recently honored as a Remarkable Women by the National Association of Women Business Owners and is involved in several Orange County organizations, including the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce, the Building Industry Association and Habitat for Humanity. 
Trina Norman is the Anaheim Package Division Manager for UPS. Ms. Norman is an unstoppable business woman, striving to build and motivate others through community service, mentoring and developing others to achieve their dreams. UPS is extremely committed to the community, providing countless hours of volunteer support to local nonprofits, despite a difficult economy and changes in staffing structure. Ms. Norman is a tireless advocate for several nonprofit organizations in Orange County, including WHW. 
Kristin Byrnes is the CEO of Project Access, Inc., an Orange County nonprofit organization whose mission is to be the leading provider of vital health, education and employment services to families, children and seniors living in low-income housing communities. Under the direction of Ms. Byrnes, Project Access has grown from 8 centers in Southern California to 37 centers in 3 regions of the state. She also led the development of an evaluation system which provides feedback for improvement as well as quantitative measures of the impact of Project Access' services.
