Note: This is a draft document, and changes may be made before it is official.

The Spare Change News Career Development Program provides qualifying vendors with vocational training to prepare them to apply for Turf Manager positions for Spare Change News.  The program will also help prepare them to work in jobs outside of SCN, including sales and customer relations.

Participant training is provided by experienced industry professionals who volunteer at Spare Change News. Trainings take place as continuing sessions with a maximum of five vendors working with one trainer per session. Sessions focus on vendor management, communications skills, turf management (zones in which papers are sold) and production flow for the newspaper. These skills help our vendors take a leadership role at Spare Change News. More importantly, these trainings provide vendors with real-life job skills that can help prepare them for outside work in sales, marketing and production management.

To meet the transportation and communication demands of the CDP, vendors are provided with a T pass and limited cell phone minutes. The CDP lasts for three months and costs $250 per vendor.

The CDP is a new initiative developed by Spare Change News in partnership with the MIT Center for Future Civic Media. We are currently in the beta testing phase of this program and look forward to your participation and feedback!