How Focus Solutions keeps community service at its core

Zola Stewart, President and CEO, Focus Solutions Inc.

Finalist
Zola Stewart
president and CEO
Focus Solutions Inc.
(513) 376-8349 | www.focussolutions-inc.com
 
Focus Solutions Inc. — a private, for-profit talent management and workforce provider — keeps community service at the core of the company. Sisters Zola Stewart, president and CEO, and Barbara Walker-Johnson, vice president and COO, founded the company with giving spirits, aiming to help people find jobs.
The organization has grown to encompass four brand companies: Focus Solutions, Focus Staffing, employermatchmaker.com and i3 Construction Management Services.
Stewart and Walker-Johnson have also grown the company’s support services, realizing that many of the people they encountered who needed jobs just weren’t “job ready.” They’ve since developed an impressive record of developing low-income and hard-to-place job seekers.
The duo founded and fully funds a company-affiliated nonprofit agency, as well, InSite Change Foundation Inc. This community development corporation promotes development by instituting programming and initiatives that empower individuals, build community and increase business capacity, all with the goal of setting the foundation for a safe and economically viable community.
And it’s not just the company’s founders making a difference. Focus Solutions associates get into the spirit of giving back, as well. One of the projects undertaken by the staff is We “Care” Day, an initiative where employees thoroughly clean selected sites and buildings. One such building was the Seven Hills Neighborhood House, which is significant to many employees who grew up in the West End. They purchased all of the materials needed to clean the building, in addition to providing the labor to get the job done.