Wazee Digital Supports Women's Bean Project to Help Women Overcome Barriers to Employment

DENVER, CO--(Marketwired - Jan 24, 2017) - Wazee Digital, a leading provider of cloud-native video management and licensing services, today announced its support for Women's Bean Project, a Denver-based transitional job training program for chronically unemployed and impoverished women. As the first company to sign up for the nonprofit organization's new Corporate Partner Program, Wazee Digital has committed $5,000, multiple volunteers, and fundraising support to help increase the frequency of activities designed to assist with life skills and job readiness.

"Last spring, we restructured our program so that we could accommodate more women in a year, and Wazee Digital's involvement has been an important part of that effort," said Luanne Hill, development manager for Women's Bean Project. "Wazee Digital is the first corporate sponsor that made it possible for us to deliver our basic computer classes to new groups of participants every three to four months, instead of just once a year. Thanks to new levels of funding, we've been able to increase sales, and we anticipate hiring up to 75 women over the course of the first year under the new format -- more than double the number we've been able to accommodate in the past."

Besides its cash donation and support around Women's Bean Project's annual spring fundraiser, "Ready, Set, Grow!", Wazee Digital volunteers run two four-week sessions of computer literacy classes. Volunteer facilitator Sheri Dethlefs, Wazee Digital's senior director of business affairs, teaches each class, while 10 other company volunteers -- women and men -- provide individualized support to each woman as she learns how to use the internet, send emails, and create Microsoft^® Word^® and Excel^® documents.

Women's Bean Project provides jobs for program participants in gourmet food and handmade jewelry manufacturing. At the same time, participants augment their on-the-job training through special programming and classes in interpersonal and life skills needed to move into career entry-level employment. By working in an active business, program participants learn the importance of reliability, accuracy, punctuality, attention to detail, and attendance while also addressing life skills -- communication, budgeting, accountability, problem-solving, and goal-setting.

Over the past five years, Women's Bean Project has exceeded national averages in the areas of transitional-employment program retention, job placement, and job retention. A full 68 percent of participants successfully graduate from the program, 95 percent of those graduates go into permanent entry-level careers, and an average of 93 percent are still employed 12 months after graduation.

"We're committed to giving back to our community and knew we wanted to get involved with women's causes. After touring the Women's Bean Project facility, we fell in love with it and had no doubt it was something we should support," said Dethlefs. "Women's Bean Project is a long-standing Denver organization that has had remarkable success helping local women get and stay on their feet. If we can provide resources that help the organization increase its volume, then our whole community wins."

A Women's Bean Project computer literacy session is going on now and runs through Feb. 15.

Companies or individuals can donate, get involved, or shop Women's Bean Project products by visiting www.womensbeanproject.com. More information about Wazee Digital's products and services is available at www.wazeedigital.com.

About Wazee Digital
Wazee Digital enables rights holders to monetize and enrich their valuable content. Wazee Digital's scalable solutions provide complete control over content so that assets reach their rightful audiences around the globe. It is the only asset management solution built from the ground up to run natively in the cloud, and the only one to make live moments available immediately for global publishing, syndication, advertising, and sponsorship. With more than 10 years of experience in digital content licensing, rights, and clearances, Wazee Digital has long-standing relationships with significant rights holders in the film, TV, sports, and advertising industries -- all of whom rely on Wazee Digital for managing content that fuels their business.

Product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

Photo Link: www.wallstcom.com/WazeeDigital/Wazee-Digital_Brian-Noecker.JPG
Photo Caption: Brian Noecker, vice president of information systems and services at Wazee Digital, coaches Veronica, a participant in the Women's Bean Project program, during a computer literacy class.

Photo Link: www.wallstcom.com/WazeeDigital/Wazee-Digital_Tanya-Sudolnik.JPG
Photo Caption: Tanya Sudolnik, vice president product line management, commerce at Wazee Digital, coaches Renee, a participant in the Women's Bean Project program, during a computer literacy class.

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