Our Programs

The way ManifestWorks alumni are integrated into our programs allows us to build services to meet their needs as their lives and their careers evolve.

ManifestWorks changes lives with job training, placement and professional and wellness support for those impacted by foster care, incarceration and homelessness, and we are proud of the economic gains our alumni have made since our inception in 2014. 

But even with unparalleled wage growth for our graduates, housing presents an enormous challenge. Homelessness has exploded in the last decade, with home prices and rents in LA County among the most expensive in the United States. Fires in 2025 wiped out homes for applicants, participants, alumni. The housing crisis and its impact on our participants and alumni needs our direct attention. 

We’ve responded. In 2025, we expanded our staff and directly began to invest more deeply in emergency housing – offering hotel vouchers, cash grants to support housing retention & housing start-up costs, and providing case management to get participants and alumni into housing or helping keep them there. 

And we continue to focus on the core programming that changes lives:

MANIFEST

Our 11-week, transformative workforce development program hands-on doing, making, networking—puts participants in the mix on location, in production houses, at sound stages and in post-production facilities, and includes paid, on-set experience and the life skills needed launch careers.

Professionalism

Indispensability

Punctuality

Networking

Immersive Training

Industry Partners + mentors

Jobs-first model

Equipment, walkies & lingo

Reading sides & call-sheets

Petty cash & Expense forms

Resumes/Interviewing

Budgets and banking

Emailing + calendaring

Computer skills

On-set job placement

Union requirements

Set roles, depth + positions

Agencies/studios/on-set/post

Start paperwork + Payroll

PHBB accounts

MANIFESTMORE

Mid-career training, financial literacy and ongoing job placement supporting professional growth and wealth acquisition to ensure long-term, ascendent careers for our alumni.

Savings

Investing/Wealth building

Affinity Groups

Union training:

+ Grips

+ Sound

+ Camera

+ Art Department

Office training

Post-PA training

Community Building

Mid-career Job Placement

MANIFESTSUPPORT

Clinical and life support of all kinds—the extra-professional scaffolding to support healthy lives, thriving careers and stable homes over time.

Needs Assessment

Housing Grants (hotel vouchers, cash grants to support home retention and start-up costs)

Housing placement, maintenance assistance and case management

Life Skills

Clinical Therapy

Occupational Therapy

Cash Grants

Service Referrals

Legal Advocacy