The CHIPS Program is officially From Chocolate Chips to Micro Chips to Blue Chips. It aims to take women from working inside the home to working outside the home and making sound financial judgments. Its participants often are women who are newly divorced or widowed and whose resources – personal, monetary and professional – are scarce.

Elements of CHIPS include credit classes in computer use, assertiveness training, time management, counseling, physical conditioning, skill and career exploration, job placement guidance and help assembling a professional wardrobe. A follow-up program, CHIPS TOO, includes credit classes in Microsoft Word and personal finance.

Both CHIPS programs are 15 weeks long. Participants earn 6 credits, and many continue their studies, earning a skills certificate or an associate degree. Thousands of women have begun new lives because of the CHIPS Program.