PART 2 ~ “The Best Welfare Program is a Job” Dr. John M. Perkins
Posted: Thursday, October 20, 2011 | Author: Marti (Michalec) Williams | Filed under: 2k11, Jobs | Tags: CCDA, Dr John M Perkins, Jobs for Life, Powered for Life, RVA, Social Service, united institute study, welfare program | 2 CommentsIn 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!
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