First Step Staffing

2019 Archives - UnTours Foundation

First Step Staffing

First Step Staffing is a non-profit that focuses on job training and placement for those just entering or re-entering the job market. The organization works with veterans, those who have recently experienced homelessness, and citizens re-entering the workforce after serving time in prison. It has provided over 7,500 people with their first job assignment. The organization

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Wash Cycle Laundry

Clean Laundry. Clean Planet. Clean Slates. This is the motto of Wash Cycle laundry, an ecologically smart laundry service. Founded in 2010 in Phialdelphia, this innovative laundry and linen rental service company provides commercial laundry services to hotel and businesses, with a focus on those that are poorly served by industrial laundries. They pick up

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Grant Blvd

Grant Blvd is a black women-owned, Philadelphia-based apparel brand. This Certified B Corporation was founded in 2017 and is on a mission to contract truly stylish, sustainably sourced fashion while supporting women who have faced cultural barriers in fashion design. The UnTours Foundation funded the launch of Grant Blvd’s manufacturing studio. The Grant Blvd Origin

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Ocean Sole Africa

Ocean Sole Africa is an elegant solution to the persistent problem of environmental blight, turning ocean trash into unique and colorful works of art. Specifically, the humble and ubiquitous cast-off plastic flip flop. In just one year, Ocean Soul removed about one million flip flops from the oceans and upcycled them into one-of-a-kind collector pieces,

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CERO

CERO, or Cooperative Energy, Recycling, and Organics, is a zero-waste commercial composting company based in Dorchester, MA. This bilingual, worker-owned cooperative removes more than 1,000 tons of food waste from the trash cycle annually and gets it to local farms to be composted. Food waste is one of the nation’s biggest trash issues. About 1/3

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Rende Progress Capital

Rende Progress Capital is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and community loan fund that provides investment with a focus on racial equity. Studies by the U.S. Department of Commerce show that minority-owned firms are three times more likely to be denied loans than white-owned firms. When they are fortunate enough to be offered loans,

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Simply Good Jars

Simply Good Jars offers delicious, organic salads with locally sourced ingredients, delivered in reusable plastic jars. This company was founded with the goal of helping end our dependence on single-use plastics. At the company’s inception, Simply Smart Fridges were installed in airports and work places, with plastic jar return receptacles right beside the fridges. They

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Keep Media Green

At the Untours Foundation, we have called Media, PA home since our founding. We are grateful to Keep Media Green for their work to protect natural spaces and stand up for environmental causes in our own backyard. Media is the county seat and has seen healthy growth of retail and housing. This advocacy nonprofit organization

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Philadelphia Public School Notebook/Chalkbeat

We don’t normally fund nonprofits, but we recently had an opportunity to provide a bridge loan to the Chalkbeat, formerly known as the Philadelphia Public School Notebook (PPSN), an advocacy journalism organization that reports on the public school system of Philadelphia. This independent, nonprofit news organization focuses on topics and themes of vital importance to

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