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PART 2 ~ “The Best Welfare Program is a Job” Dr. John M. Perkins

Posted: Thursday, October 20, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: 2k11, Jobs | Tags: , , , , , , , |2 Comments

In yesterday’s post, “The Best Welfare Program is a Job”  Dr. John M. Perkins, I started processing one of the workshops, Helping Those You Serve Find and Keep Meaningful Employment, conducted by Jobs For Life (www.jobsforlife.org).  I’m going to continue that thought into today.  In chapter 3 of Congregations in America, they took a look at “percentage of congregations participating in or supporting various social services programs”.  Here are just a few of the results (found on page 48):

Service % Participating
Food 32
Housing 18
Clothing 11
Homeless 8
Health 4
Substance Abuse 2
Employment 1

This means that at the time of this research, 32% of church congregations were involved in a Food Ministry, like a food pantry, 18% were involved in housing, and so forth, leaving a small 1% who found or created employment opportunities.  Imagine….what would it be like if at least 33% focused on Employment or Job Skills Training?  More people would have and keep their jobs, right???  If more people have jobs, then, the church would need to provide less food, housing, clothing, etc. because people would be able to provide more of their own basic needs.  In addition, dignity and self esteem would also be returned to the home.  How cool is that???

This is yet another reason why we want to provide job skills training and job opportunities to people.  How can you participate?  You can help with training, mentoring, encouraging, etc.  But, we also need job opps for folks.  Do you or someone you know have opportunities to hire some of the graduates? Would you like to help find jobs for our students?

If you know someone who might be interested, please forward this to them.

If you are interested in participating after prayerful consideration, please feel free to contact me! 

2 Comments on “PART 2 ~ “The Best Welfare Program is a Job” Dr. John M. Perkins”

  1. Dave Cooper says:
    Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 8:09 pm

    Hi Marti and all.

    What if churches transformed need-based ministries into ministries of abundance that both employ people and provide income for the employees/learners/participants?

    In some of my recent work in Los Angeles, I encountered Home Boy Enterprises; a social entrepreneurial business. In Seattle, Pioneer Human Services is doing similar work. DeLancey Street Project in San Francisco is yet another example. Finally, right here in Richmond, the design that I developed for Shalom Farms is still another example. So too is Breadwinners, a Richmond social enterprise. All of these originated with and/or have deep connections with congregations.

    I would enjoy working with congregations who have an interest and call to these types of job creating ministries.

    Shalom,
    Dave Cooper
    Dave.cooper@shalommakers.com

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