CASPAR’s GEAR (Get Employment and Recycle) offers pre-vocational training and employment for homeless people who lack both a job history and a job reference. GEAR is a structured program where trainees gain basic skills, learn all aspects of a retail operation, receive supervision, and develop competence that is transferable to a mainstream workplace.

GEAR operates a second-hand retail store where trainees participate in all aspects of the retail operation, from picking up and sorting donations to conducting inventory, making direct sales and working the cash register. Incremental increases in responsibility and pay reinforce trainees’ confidence and self-sufficiency and recognize their developing skill levels.

Trainees also interface with customers both at the store and by performing small jobs such as snow removal, lawn mowing, and packing and moving. Through their supervised employment experience, homeless clients obtain necessary entry-level job skills; experience promotion from one job to another; build a sense of competence and self-sufficiency; develop a basic work ethic; and secure a reference for future employment upon graduation.