New Hope Enterprises is the only affiliate of STRIVE International in Atlanta. Over the last 20-plus years, STRIVE International, headquartered in Harlem, N.Y., has become one of the most successful leaders in the non-profit sector by helping thousands of chronically unemployed individuals across the country (and the world) become productive members of the workforce and society-at-large.

New Hope’s mission is to improve the quality of life for economically disadvantaged individuals and families of Metropolitan Atlanta through education, job training, job placement, and ongoing support services which illuminate pathways out of poverty and into genuine employment.

Our decision to become the only organization in Atlanta to offer the STRIVE program as the core curriculum for every participant is supported by STRIVE’s experience and outstanding record of success. Building on STRIVE's longstanding history and experience strengthens New Hope Enterprises’ ability to offer comprehensive employment programs to meet the difficult employment challenges of the persons we serve.

STRIVE's supportive services are created to eliminate the individual and societal obstacles which prevent unemployed persons from succeeding in the workplace — and in their overall lives. In empowering individuals and families to realize self-determination and self-sufficiency, no element is more critical than creating opportunities for gainful employment with a living wage.

The founding principle of STRIVE is to address, head-on, the adverse factors that impact communities and the potential success of their residents — including homelessness, substance abuse, crime, teen parenting, domestic violence, and the lack of health and child care. People who live in economically depressed neighborhoods often face isolation and lack personal networks, positive role models and access to job information. Self-defeating attitudes, spotty work histories, and inadequate self-presentation skills often compound these circumstances.

The STRIVE Core program succeeds by virtue of its rigor and discipline. In today’s economic climate, it takes grit and determination to prepare people for the demands of the hard-to-break-into workplace. Given the lack of available social services, many of our participants have never had the opportunity to be exposed to appropriate workplace demeanor, much less instruction in fundamental employment etiquette. They have received virtually no support in attending to the personal problems that preclude success in the workplace. While instilling fundamental job skills, the STRIVE approach is holistic — focused primarily on soft-skills training and the cultural and behavioral issues that are related to attaining — and retaining — meaningful employment.