The number of individuals impacted by career transition, the loss of a child, and/or experiencing an obstacle to building their families is staggering. The financial, psychological, and emotional toll these populations experience as a result of the obstacles they face often leads to extreme feelings of isolation, hopelessness, and despair. With numbers like the ones below, it is easy to see why. There are many reasons that Hiring For Hope was formed. Outlined below are a few of the main things that keep us up at night. To review a complete overview of the statistics and resources related to this section please click the green "Statistical Summary Incidence Rates" button .
The Dollars and Nonsense Of It All
1 in 6 couples currently face challenges associated with infertility, and 80 million Americans have considered adoption. The costs associated with burying your child, adopting, and/or using fertility treatments have skyrocketed.
Most insurance companies in most states view fertility treatments as "elective procedures", and only 15 states currently have laws that require any sort of insurance coverage for this process. Because of these steep costs and the issues associated with insurance limitations, most will abandon their dreams of becoming parents.
Pregnancy and Infant Loss - Awareness, Education and Prevention
Did you know that October 15 is International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day? Probably not. Prime time news this date featured National Hand Washing Day. Of course, like anyone else we encourage good hygiene practices. However, this example shows how much opportunity there is to improve our level of awareness and education about pregnancy and infant loss. Following are some key statistics:
As a nation, we have made significant progress in educating the public about S.I.D.S. Most parenting classes today do an excellent job of teaching expectant parents about the risk of S.I.D.S. and send them home equipped with a list of ways to prevent it. Unfortunately, we have not yet achieved this same level of awareness, education, and prevention regarding stillbirth (S.A.D.S).
The awareness and education gap between these two causes of death is both tragic and puzzling. The travesty surrounding stillbirths doesn't stop with the death of the baby, or with the limited amount of awareness and education that is currently readily available. It also carries over into areas of research and prevention. Much of this void can be attributed to a shortage of adequate data to review and a lack of standardization. Finally, the fact that more people are not aware of Dr. Jason Collins work at the Pregnancy Institute and are consequently not able to take advantage of his findings, or implement his prevention methods, is one of stillbirth's greatest tragedies. We intend to change this.
Education and Awareness for Job Seekers
It's no longer life as usual when you are looking for a job. Technology and social media have severely altered the way employers conduct their hiring processes. Job seekers find themselves in a recessionary "employer's market" in which decision makers can be extremely selective when making their hiring decisions. 
Unfortunately, the education available for job seekers has not kept up. Many job seekers find themselves facing today's competitive job market without the proper tools and knowledge needed to maximize their chances of success. This causes many job seekers to feel more scared, overwhelmed, and helpless than ever before. Some people are trying to capitalize on this "gap" by charging job seekers to attend educational workshops on topics such as the use of Social Media in the job search process. We offer this workshop and many others to help you during the entire career transition process free of charge. They are all online, and can be taken at your leisure from the comfort of your own homes.
Why No "One Stop Shop"?
As we embarked upon our own journeys of grief and healing, and searched for ways to overcome our own obstacles, we found that many individuals in our same circumstances had a need and/or a desire to explore several different options in order to deal with their loss and overcome their obstacles. It is fairly common for a couple to have suffered a loss, be faced with fertility treatments, and be simultaneously trying to understand and/or maneuver through the daunting adoption process. Getting our hands on all the information, resources, and finances that we needed was challenging. We also found ourselves bumping around cyberspace like a ping-pong ball from one organization to the next. So to us, it made more sense to have all of the tools that someone may need in order to grieve, heal, transition their career, and/or manage and overcome these life events all in one place.
We also learned that experiencing these life events can be very isolating. For us, it would have been very helpful if there had been a positive, safe, and supportive virtual networking and support group where we and our friends and family members could have connected and collaborated with other like-minded individuals. A place where we could have come to find inspiration, hope, and moral support by sharing our experiences, knowledge, and resources, and learned that we were not alone.
With the growing popularity and use of social media, we began to imagine if there might not be a way to create this much needed "virtual support group". Through a little research and some resourcefulness, we discovered that this concept was technologically possible. Our social network, called Voices of Hope, is the virtual support group community that we envisioned.
Overview Of Services
At Hiring For Hope, our services for job seekers, couples, and their friends and family members are free, confidential, and compassionate. They simultaneously provide financial assistance to childless couples, solve the workforce challenges of employers, and ease the emotional, psychological, and financial duress that is so commonly experienced by these populations during times of loss, crises, and transition.
Employers that use our Workforce Solution Services have the opportunity to solve their workforce challenges at a rate below market average, and also receive the added financial benefit of being able to claim a portion of their costs as a tax write-off. In addition to these financial and business incentives, employers will have the satisfaction of knowing that the money that they used to solve their workforce challenges also enabled couples with the opportunity to overcome their obstacles to building their families. Outlined below is a brief overview of our different service offerings. For a detailed overview of our services click the green button that says "Overview of Services".
Workforce Solutions Services include:
