The Job Foundation was established in 2006, in honor of Mike and Jennifer Brost’s stillborn son, Job. Job died as a result of medical error in 1999. Mrs. Brost’s father also died in a car accident the day their child died, and she nearly died as well. The couple had also recently lost each of their mothers. While their losses were very difficult, the couple is thankful for the generous financial and emotional support offered to them by many, many people.

Mrs. Brost had lived in a run-down apartment building for a year during college where she became better educated about poverty and the difficulties people with lower incomes face. After their multiple losses, Mrs. Brost could not imagine how her friends from the apartment building could recover from such hardships without extensive help to reestablish their ability to be self-sufficient. Armed with these experiences and a deep faith in God, the Brost’s formed The Job Foundation as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization whose original mission statement was to assist persons facing adversity. With time, practice, and education, the organization came to see sound financial decision making and the offering of earned financial resources as beneficial methods for helping persons recover from adversity.

In 2007, the Financial Integrity Mentorship Program was launched. The program continues to offer select students financial incentives for good grades while educating them on financial practices and requiring them to save at least 50% of their earnings. In the spring of 2009, in-home tutoring was added as a service as the organization hired its first employee, a graduate of the program. With the addition of tutoring, dramatic results have been seen with some students greatly improving their academic scores in a single quarter and teachers reporting improved behavior and effort. The Job Foundation and Operation Threshold began working together to provide financial education to participants in the fall of 2009. The vision for our second program, Project My Part, was birthed in 2009, and began in January of 2010. Project My Part targets families who live in apartments and provides in-home tutoring, household items for the completion of assignments, gas gift cards for preparing nutritious family-style meals--all while fostering initiative, positive communication, sound financial decision making, and a love of learning.