Empowering the Parent to Empower the Child (“EPEC”) is a nonprofit organization devoted to helping impoverished families become self-reliant through job training in the high-demand, high-pay pet grooming trade. In 2016, EPEC started the Grooming Project as a pilot program to train low-income women in the pet grooming trade and place them in living-wage pet grooming jobs. Over the course of the program, EPEC has seen 10 percent job placement and supported over 600 families, with 61 percent leaving welfare or other public assistance.
In the past year, the project received over 300 applications for the training program. However, due to capacity constraints and limitations, the school was forced to cap the maximum number of students served. In response to the great demand, EPEC sought financing for the 16,000 sq. ft. Pawsperity Center, which was designed to replace the current 5,000-square-foot school and salon and improve the service the organization’s capacity. The Pawsperity Center transformed an old Advanced Auto Parts store into a two-story grooming training school and salon, as well as space for an affiliated doggie daycare program. The facility serves as a solution to poverty and financial issues for struggling families and single parents in the low-income community by offering students training in the trade of pet grooming as well as comprehensive support services, including a weekly educational stipend, housing, free dental care, mental health services, and access to employment specialists.
To finance the new facility, EPEC received $7.25 million of NMTC financing from CBKC CDC, L.L.C. The financing was essential as inflated construction costs and disrupted supply chain operations increased the project budget, creating a financing gap. Without NMTC financing, the project would be forced to carry a high-interest debt bridge loan that would jeopardize the long-term feasibility of the project.
The new facility has more than doubled the number of students served to 490 students over the next seven years, with graduates earning an average wage of $50,000 annually. Additionally, the increased operational capacity of the project allows for the facility to increase the number of dogs groomed per day from 30 to 90 dogs groomed, which also improves the annual earned revenue from $150,000 per year to over $1.2 million per year to support the nonprofit. The project also helped retain and create 85 full-time jobs and 19 temporary full-time equivalent construction jobs.