When Soad Mansour founded Towards Employment (TE) in 1976, her idea was simple: Everyone deserves the opportunity to work, contribute, and thrive.

2021 Hometown Hero Deborah Vesy.Fifty years later, Mansour’s philosophy is still at the heart of the organization in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood—but the work has grown far beyond helping someone find a job.

Over the past five decades, Towards Employment has helped more than 216,000 Northeast Ohio residents build skills, overcome barriers, and pursue rewarding careers. Along the way, the organization has evolved with Cleveland’s workforce—expanding its focus from employment to career advancement, economic mobility, and the systems and partnerships that make those things possible.

Towards Employment will celebrate its history this Friday, Oct. 2, with its 50th Anniversary Gala at the Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Tower. The evening will bring together TE alumni, current and former staff and board members, employers, volunteers, funders, community partners, and others who have helped shape the organization over the years.

For Adaora Nzelibe Schmiedl, Towards Employment’s chief advancement and community engagement officer, the anniversary isn't really about looking backward. She says it’s about looking at what can happen when someone gets an opportunity—and what happens next.

“One of the wonderful things about celebrating 50 years is reconnecting with people who came through Towards Employment at very different points in our history,” Schmiedl says. “Those stories demonstrate that the impact of employment can extend far beyond that first job—increased earnings, career advancement, families and ultimately entire communities.”

That ripple effect is at the center of the anniversary celebration, including the introduction of TE's new Ripple Effect Award. The award celebrates TE graduates and staff members whose engagement with Towards Employment and Cleveland has created an impact that extends beyond a single person, program or moment.

Towards Employment employees.Beyond the first job
Towards Employment was founded in October 1976 as Manpower Supporting Services. From the beginning, Mansour recognized that getting a job often involves overcoming challenges that have little to do with a person's ability or willingness to work.

Many people might need help with transportation, childcare, legal issues, health concerns, skills development, or other barriers while trying to get into the workforce, explains Schmiedl.

“TE was built to help people address those challenges while connecting them to employment and opportunity,” she says.

That philosophy hasn't changed, even as the programs and workforce have. Today, Towards Employment serves more than 2,000 adults of all ages each year through career readiness and skills development, career coaching, employer connections, supportive services, and workforce advocacy.

There is a system to TE’s approach to providing support, Schmiedl says, but there is no simple cookie-cutter formula that works for everyone.

“Every person's circumstances and goals are different,” she says.

Towards Employment combines career readiness and skills development for in-demand jobs with wraparound services, career coaching, direct connections to employers, and advocacy for stronger workforce policies and practices.

The relationship doesn't end when someone lands a job, Schmiedl says.

“We continue coaching people after placement because the goal isn't simply employment,” she says. “The goal is retention, advancement, and economic mobility.”

The difference is illustrated by one TE graduate who will be honored at Friday’s gala. Robert Cade first came to Towards Employment and began his career in an entry-level position at a local hospital. He later returned to TE to continue building his career and became a Patient Care Nursing Assistant (PCNA) and, in 2026, became a registered nurse.

“That's exactly the kind of story we mean when we talk about advancement,” Schmiedl says. “TE wasn't one moment in Robert's life. We were part of a longer career journey.”

Cade is one of three inaugural recipients of the Ripple Effect Award, along with DJ Crosby and Myiesha Montgomery, whose success has extended beyond themselves—through their families, workplaces, and communities. Their stories will be featured Friday in a short film.

“One person's opportunity can affect children, families, coworkers, and communities,” Schmiedl says.

Evolving with Cleveland
That idea of a ripple effect also applies to Towards Employment itself. Over the past five decades, the organization has continuously adapted to changing workforce needs while maintaining its focus on the individuals it serves.

Talan Products corporate access program.In 2004, Towards Employment took on the former Cleveland Works programming, expanding its ability to serve returning citizens.

In 2011, TE was selected to coordinate the Northeast Ohio implementation of WorkAdvance, a career pathway model combining skills development, supportive services, employer connections, placement, and long-term advancement coaching.

In 2023, Towards Employment moved from downtown Cleveland to the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood—putting the organization closer to many of the people and communities it serves.

Partnerships have been critical throughout that evolution, according to Schmiedl, who emphasizes, “We could never do this work alone.”

The formula is truly a collaborative effort. Employers hire Towards Employment graduates and help shape training and career pathways. Training and workforce partners help people earn industry-recognized credentials. Community partners help participants connect with housing, transportation, behavioral health, legal assistance, and other services that can determine whether someone is able to enter and remain in the workforce.

Philanthropic, corporate, and public-sector partners help support programs and innovation, while Employer Resource Network partners invest in Success Coaches, who work directly with employees to solve problems that might otherwise cause them to leave a job.

“The common denominator is that everyone brings something to the table,” Schmiedl says.

Five decades, three leaders
Friday’s gala also will honor three people whose leadership spans Towards Employment's history: founding executive director Mansour, former executive director Walter Ginn, and president and CEO Jill Rizika.

Towards Employment's 2024 'A Work & Reentry Experience.'Mansour founded the organization and led it through its first two decades. Ginn, the organization's second executive director, built on that foundation and helped expand its focus on retention supports as Cleveland's workforce needs changed.

Rizika has led Towards Employment for more than two decades, growing its career pathway and reentry work, strengthening employer and community partnerships, expanding its workforce policy work, and helping establish the organization as a recognized voice beyond Cleveland.

Together, the three leaders represent what Schmiedl describes as an important continuity.

“Soad created the vision,” she says. “Walter built on and expanded it; Jill helped transform it for a changing economy and workforce system.”

Each inherited an organization and adapted it to a changing environment, Schmiedl says, while keeping the individual at the center of TE’s work.

“Programs change. Industries change. Technology changes,” she says. “The barriers facing workers change. But the fundamental belief in people's potential has remained constant.”

A special “Leadership & Legacy” film featuring Mansour, Ginn, and Rizika will premiere at the gala.

The evening also marks a transition for the organization. Rizika is retiring after 20 years as president and CEO, and Tania Menesse will take over as the organization's new president and CEO.

“As proud as we are of the last 50 years, this anniversary is not an ending,” Menesse says. “It is the beginning of our next chapter—and an invitation to our entire community to help write it.”

What comes next
The next chapter in Towards Employment’s story comes at a time when both workers and employers are navigating significant changes.

Schmiedl explains that many factors are affecting the employment landscape. Technology and artificial intelligence are changing job descriptions and the skills employers need. Demographics are shifting. Workers’ expectations are changing, while employers continue to face challenges finding, retaining, and developing talent.

At the same time, she says employment by itself doesn't necessarily create economic mobility.

“People need access to jobs with wages, benefits, stability and opportunities to advance,” she says, adding that workers continue to face practical barriers, including transportation, childcare, housing instability, legal issues, behavioral health needs, and financial challenges.

Those factors mean Towards Employment's next 50 years will involve working with both sides of the workforce equation—helping workers build skills and navigate barriers while working with employers and advocating for policies and practices that expand opportunity.

The 2025 ribbon cutting of Towards Employment's new offices in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood.Schmiedl says the plan is to continue building TE’s pathways into in-demand careers, strengthening employer partnerships, and adapting to a changing economy. She says Menesse will lead that effort.

“The question for us isn't simply, ‘How do we help someone get the next job?’” Schmiedl explains. “It's ‘How do we help people build careers and economic mobility, and how do we build a workforce system that makes that possible for more people?’”

That question brings the organization’s 50-year history full circle.

The numbers—216,000 people served, thousands of careers launched, credentials earned, increased wages—tell part of the story.

The people behind those numbers tell the complete story.

At the gala, Towards Employment will celebrate 50 stories in words and pictures, including the stories of Cade, Crosby, Montgomery, and generations of Northeast Ohio residents whose lives changed because they had access to an opportunity—and the support to build on it.

“Those numbers we report—placements, credentials, wage gains—represent real people whose lives and families can change through careers and opportunities,” Schmiedl says.

Fifty years in, that's still what Towards Employment is working toward.

Towards Employment’s 50th Anniversary Gala is Friday, Oct. 2, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom of the Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Tower, 1360 W. Mall Drive, Cleveland, 44114.

The evening will include the Hometown Heroes and Ripple Effect awards, alumni stories, the “Leadership & Legacy” film, anniversary tributes, and Cleveland-themed experiences.

Gala tickets are sold out, but sponsorships and raffle tickets are still available. Towards Employment has reached 75% of its $400,000 fundraising goal. There is still time to donate!