About Change Course

Empowering Future Leaders

Change Course is a career development program that provides training in highly sought-after skills along with leadership and personal development, to give people in Des Moines a way to stop living paycheck to paycheck and launch a career.

Father and Daughter

Change Course’s Mission

Affordable, effective, and short-term career training is almost impossible to find. Change Course has identified highly sought-after careers in our community. We offer free training and pay you to start a new career in as little as four months. Students who have completed the program in other areas of the country are earning on average more than $18 per hour in jobs with upward mobility and full benefits, including health care and paid vacation time.

Our mission is to put an end to relational, economic, and spiritual poverties by giving hope, untapping creativity, and empowering participants with career skills surrounded by and involved in a loving community.
 

Within one year of graduating from our career training program, graduates of the same model, Uprise Nashville, report an average pay increase of $19,600.

Change Course is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit formed in 2022 to assist families living in poverty to remove the barriers in their lives (such as inadequate education, poor support network, and inability to navigate the existing programs) that are keeping them from emerging out of poverty and becoming self-sufficient. Change Course provides training, support, and connections to a network of other partners (such as educational and employment opportunities) to support program participants in their journey out of poverty.

Change Course CEO, Joseph Johnson’s testimony

CHANGE COURSE BOARD

Joseph Johnson

Joseph Johnson

Change Course CEO
Board Member

Karin Johnson

Karin Johnson

Director of Programs
Board Member

Board Members Jerry and Nancy Foster

Jerry and Nancy Foster

Board Members

Jeff Johnson Photo

Jeff Johnson

Board Member

Change Course Board Member Tom Budler

Thomas Budler

Board Member

Kim Smith - CC Board Member

Kim Smith

Board Member

Tyler Smith Headshot

Tyler Smith

Board Member

James Green headshot

James Green

Board Member

Julian Dismute Headshot

Julian Dismute

Board Member

CHANGE COURSE Employees

Joe Johnson - Founder/CEO

JOSEPH JOHNSON

Founder/CEO

Karin Johnson - Director or Programs

KARIN JOHNSON

Director of Programs

Dani Magulado - Lead Career Coach

DANI MINCKS

Lead Career Coach

Bradford Johnson - Director of Communications

BRADFORD JOHNSON

Director of Communications

Nicole Neal - Administrative Assistant

NICOLE NEAL

Administrative Assistant

Andrea Rouw Headshot

Andrea Rouw

Career Coach 

Change Course Headquarters.

Change Course Office

Effective April 29, 2024, visits. to our offices are by appointment only.  Please call us at (515)779-6108 to make an appointment.

ADDRESS

1912 6th Ave
Des Moines, Iowa 50314

Man with arms outreached beneath Change Course logo

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUEStioNS

If you’re unable to find an answer to your question, please don’t hesitate to let us know. We’ll add it to the list.

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