How Does Career Advancement Promote Affordable Housing and Prevent Violence? In this issue, you will get answers to this question, learn about the priorities of our city’s new Office of Violence Prevention administrator, and see how Love Columbia is responding. 

Disengaged Young People & Lack of Trades Workers

In the U.S., over 4.3 million young people are neither employed nor in school. Experts cite a lack of investment in career exploration resources as a key factor. A national nonprofit, Jobs for the Future, found that 74% of young people believe greater access to career and education information would expand their opportunities. Yet, fewer than half of Gen Z respondents felt they had enough information to choose a post–high school path.

The skilled trades are especially affected. The National Home Builders Association reports a monthly shortage of about 400,000 construction workers, with 2.2 million more needed over the next three years to meet demand. This gap increases housing costs and delays, underscoring the need for enhanced trades education and job placement services.

Careers Under Construction

Lori Acton, Love Columbia career coach, participated in a recent event hosted by Columbia Home Builders Association to recruit more youth and adults to consider jobs in construction trades.

Meeting the Need for Career Guidance: Career Next Steps Online Tool

The Career Next Steps website is an invaluable catalyst for career coaching with individual jobseekers. It features extensive resources to overcome barriers to employment, accessible career pathways, training opportunities, and engagement with employers committed to providing economic mobility to their employees. Local businesses and educators are showcased to inspire hope and raise expectations for career advancement. Testimonies from employees put faces on local career success.

Check out our progress on this comprehensive online hub of local career pathways.

The first “step” on the Career Next Steps site is an Agilities quiz. The DeBruce Foundation developed the Agile Work Profiler, a free, research-based assessment designed to help individuals identify their "Agilities"—the work skills that are valuable across all careers. These Agilities reflect a combination of strengths and interests and play a key role in broadening career possibilities. Career coaches Lisa and Lori were recently trained as Certified Agilities Coaches to facilitate Agilities with our clients.

Lisa Buxman, Love Columbia’s career advancement coordinator (center), leads a team that includes Lisa Riecks-Soucek from Veterans United (left), and Lisa Driskel-Hawxby from REDI (right). They meet monthly to enhance Career Next Steps.

*Email LisaB@lovecolumbia.org to add information about your business or training opportunity to Career Next Steps

Providing Basic Essentials Along with Career Coaching

For some, career advancement would be impossible if they were not assisted with basic essentials while pursuing training or proceeding through the hiring process. Here are some recent examples:



• A single mom was living in her car with her two kids. Her low paying, part-time job did not provide enough income for her to secure permanent housing. We helped her enroll in the 911 operator certification course at MACC and covered part of the expenses for the family to move into a weekly-rate hotel. She has now completed the course and is ready to get a better job and, eventually, permanent housing.
• A single woman received rent and utility assistance during the hiring process to become a city bus driver. During this time, she experienced the loss of two immediate family members and said our support helped her persevere toward her goal of a livable wage job with retirement benefits.
• A single woman enrolled in career coaching as she was not getting enough hours at her job. We helped with ride fares to get her to work and her coaching appointments as she had lost her car due to not being able to make the payments. With a new resume and cover letter, she landed a full-time job in her field making over $55,000 per year.
• A single mother with only a 9th grade education received help with rent while she secured a job and finished her high school equivalency certification. She is ready to enroll in Certified Nurses Aid classes and hopes to go on to become a registered nurse.
• A young woman who reduced her work hours to care for her mother during her terminal illness was helped to find a full-time job making a livable wage after her mother passed away. She would have lost her housing during the hiring process if we had not assisted with rent.

Donations to our Career Opportunities Fund directly impact families on their path toward economic mobility out of poverty.

Critical Need to Earn More in 2025

In the United States, almost 23% of the workforce labor in low-paying jobs, more than twice the level found in Chile, France or Japan.

We developed Does Your Job Pay Enough?  To help our clients see how much they need to earn to afford housing in Columbia and what jobs they might want to consider if their current income falls short.

Strategies to Prevent Community Violence

D’Markus Thomas-Brown started this month as Columbia’s first administrator of the newly created Office of Violence Prevention. D’Markus sees a strong link between childhood trauma, particularly related to absence of a father, and the violent behavior we see spilling out into our streets. Among the strategies he proposes to address the root causes of community violence are programs that support families and children, youth activities and engaging youth in career exploration that will lead to productive and meaningful lives. D’Markus, who grew up here without the support of a father, helped to launch the Good Dads fatherhood program in Columbia. He is very much a proponent of getting fathers more deeply connected with their children and establishing healthy bonds.

D’Markus Thomas-Brown (right) with Love Columbia Program Director, Conrad Hake (left). 

Research from the National Institution of Health (NIH) has shown that fathers can contribute uniquely to their children’s well-being. Fatherlessness can increase a child’s risk of poverty, poor school performance, aggressive behavior, worse mental and physical health, substance use, school dropout rates, and teen pregnancy. 

Good Dads is a nonprofit organization developed in 2015 in Springfield MO, to create a community that connects fathers to their children through inspiration, resources, and events for local dads. The program began when leaders in southwest Missouri recognized the impact of a father’s absence on a child’s well-being and came together to support fathers.  When the organization received a grant from the Missouri state legislature for statewide expansion in 2023, they asked Love Columbia to coordinate their central Missouri effort. We hosted a train the trainers’ event on the Good Dads curriculum in 2024 and, as a result, there are now courses being held at several locations.

Good Dads has several course options including Good Dads 2.0 (16 weeks to strengthen parent-child relationship and financial stability) and Within My Reach (8 weeks on healthy adult relationships). In addition to enhancing parent-child relationships and family connectedness, Good Dads has documented success in promoting financial stability, most notably to increase child support payments reported by our state child support enforcement department. Since Love Columbia began hosting the program in 2024, 22 individuals have participated in Good Dads and 20 of these individuals gained access to a liaison from the Child Support Enforcement Department to create a workable plan for paying child support. 

Love Columbia began another Good Dads class on April 7, 2025. If you would like more information on Good Dads or to refer dads to the program, email Ava summers at ava@gooddads.com.