The Enterprising Kitchen is a non-profit organization which provides transitional employment and life skills training to women working toward self-sufficiency and independence. The woman in the program have challenging personal histories, often including substance abuse and homelessness, they are highly motivated and committed to building independent and sustainable livelihoods. They operate a light manufacturing company which produces specialty soap products and enables women from across Chicago to participate in an intensive, but individually oriented workforce development program which includes: paid employment, work and life skills training and a variety of other support services. Each week, the women are employed thirty hours per week in all aspects of the soap making business from customer service, sales, inventory management, soap processing from raw materials to filling orders and shipping finished goods. The revenues generated through product sales help sustain our workforce development program and enable participants to benefit from a wide range of onsite resources and activities.