Activate map
History
Established in 1989.
The mission of Women’s Bean Project is to change women’s lives by providing stepping stones to self-sufficiency through social enterprise.
Women’s Bean Project is a transitional job training program for chronically unemployed and impoverished women. We provide jobs in gourmet food and handmade jewelry manufacturing. At the same time, we augment the skills they develop on the job by offering special programming and classes in interpersonal and life skills needed to move into career entry-level employment.
As a child during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Josepha «Jossy» Eyre (Masters of Social Work 1986) faced starvation, terror and the unspeakable trauma of losing siblings. The experiences left Eyre with a profound sense of hopelessness, something she recognized among the homeless women she encountered years later as a volunteer at The Gathering Place. How, Eyre wondered, could she help these women achieve independence and empowerment? The answer came in 1989.