Few people have left a legacy at Boca Helping Hands like Peggy Jones: a BHH board member from 2014 to 2022 (including serving in the role of Secretary) and a co-founder (with Patty Damron) of Heart & Spirit, an auxiliary group of BHH supporters who fundraised to help pay off the mortgage of our main facility. But she truly made her mark as the former Volunteer Manager of the Job Mentoring Program and the architect of BHH’s Job Training Program, for which Jones was recognized as BHH’s Volunteer of the Year and the Junior League’s Woman Volunteer of the Year in 2013.
Her involvement began in September of 2008, soon after retiring from a nearly 20-year career as a school psychologist in Broward County Schools. “When I retired, I decided I needed to do more than just play tennis,” she said. She started volunteering at BHH one day a week – and when the coordinator of the new Job Mentoring Program left, Jones’ education and experience made her uniquely qualified to take over and revamp it. In April 2009, she coordinated the opening of a computer lab to be utilized by the program. She was soon volunteering 30-40 hours a week, coming in every day to recruit mentees, organize on-site computer trainings, and oversee the volunteer job mentors, who helped clients write resumes, search for jobs, and prepare for interviews.
“I worked with so many talented job mentors,” she said. “I was always amazed at how much they cared about their mentees.” In her five years overseeing the Job Mentoring Program, approximately 600 unemployed individuals secured gainful employment.
But Jones also had a vision to offer Job Training as another resource for BHH clients. In January of 2013, with the support of three local foundations, she spearheaded the launch of BHH’s first Job Training Program: Esperanza Catering, a Social Enterprise program that prepared clients for jobs in the local food service industry. On March 12, 2013, the inaugural class of students prepared and served at their first gig – a luncheon for the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce.
Jones still recalls individual success stories, like a single mom who had been a Hot Meal and Pantry client and used her experience with Esperanza Catering to land a catering position at Whole Foods. “It was very rewarding,” she said. “We were really transforming lives when students gained confidence and got a job.”
While BHH’s catering program was later discontinued due to kitchen-space conflicts with our Hot Meal Program and too much competition for local catering jobs, it served as the foundation for the present-day Job Training Program, which now includes 11 different career paths and additional wraparound services to help students graduate and earn certifications.
“We’ve continued to grow the program, now offering a range of career paths and apprenticeships that are in high-demand in the local job market,” said Director of Career Development & Financial Assistance Trina Chin Cheong, who took over the program in 2014. “We deeply appreciate all of Peggy’s contributions and hope she’s proud of where the program is today.”
