Parish-based job support network
At least eight parishes in San Mateo County are creating job support networks to give spiritual and technical support to the several thousand members of those communities who organizers say are out of work and generally suffering alone.
The goal is for each parish in the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s central San Mateo County deanery to build a cadre of lay volunteers who will be trained to help guide jobless parishioners back to work. The volunteers will be skilled in resume writing, interviewing and networking.
The project will be formally announced throughout the deanery in January. The parishes of St. Gregory, Our Lady of Angels, St. Luke, St. Matthew, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Bartholomew, Immaculate Heart of Mary and Our Lady of the Pillar already are in the process of forming groups, and the other parishes in the deanery have expressed interest.
Based on a statewide unemployment rate of more than 12 percent, the number of jobless people in each parish ranges from 300 to 500, said St. Bartholomew parishioner Bill Tauskey, an organizer of the project.
Most are struggling alone and are reluctant to seek help. But Tauskey believes many would step forward if they knew that employed Catholics in the community were on hand with swift, credible, professional counseling.
“All the parishioners have to reach out to those people who are going around like they have a scarlet letter on them, but they’re not alone,” Tauskey said.
Tauskey said that the goal is to have coaches in each parish who can provide local and immediate support to all job seekers regardless of economic level. The coaches will work in teams with other volunteers who will provide such services as practice interviewing.
St. Gregory pastor Msgr. Robert McElroy said he has asked 30 members of his parish to be part of the program.
“And not a single person has said no,” he said. “People want to help because they know two things: One is they know there are a lot of people they care deeply about who are in the same boat. Secondly, they know that tomorrow they may be in the same boat.”
Msgr. McElroy said the program will be open to all parishes in the deanery. Each parish that is involved will set up an e-mail account for inquiries and assign a person to monitor messages daily. People seeking help will be referred to volunteers trained to support them with tangible skills.
Msgr. McElroy said that although those who suffered financial losses earlier this year are recovering somewhat, the job situation continues to be difficult.
“We’re finding that in this recession, as opposed to earlier ones, lots of people who had their own businesses lost them,” he said. “That’s been a terrific hit, which is distinctive in this recession in my experience, because of the credit crunch.
“Second,” he said, “we’re finding with college students coming out now, there’s no jobs for them.”
At Our Lady of Angels, 20 parishioners have stepped up to help with such skills as resume writing and helping job seekers explain their accomplishments in under a minute in order to make the strongest impression in an interview.
“If the people will respond, I think it’s going to be a tremendous success,” said Kathy Jones, director of religious education at the parish.
Parish groups already active in the project have formal training in job search and placement skills available to them through intensive four-day clinics and weekly follow-up meetings for management-level workers, plus separate training for office workers. These services are offered at no cost through a gift from IG Partners, a management consulting firm. Husband and wife Andrew and Gloria Wahl are managing directors of the firm and members of the San Mateo County Catholic community.
The training will be offered to all parishes that set up support networks. In addition, a deanery-wide electronic jobs board is planned.
“The problem we’re facing is just getting to the people who are unemployed,” Andrew Wahl said. “When you’re unemployed you feel like you’re the only person who’s unemployed and you feel you’re doing something wrong, so everybody stays quiet.”
In addition to the 3,000 to 5,000 people estimated to be unemployed in the deanery, there are uncounted others elsewhere in the Bay Area.
“It’s an incredibly large problem that we haven’t addressed,” Wahl said. “As Catholics, we’re supposed to help our fellow parishioners. As one of the priests said to us, a parish is like a family and if one person is hurting, the whole family hurts.”
The organizers believe that not only the technical help but also the relationships available in a faith community can make the difference for job seekers. They are making connections with the Episcopal and Mormon churches as well.
“People of faith want to hire people of faith,” Wahl said. “A particular faith almost is not as important as a belief in faith. We just want to provide an infrastructure where people can help.”
Technical help backed up by fellow members of her faith community has already paid off for Our Lady of Angels parishioner Geena Elliot. After a two-month search, she just took a job with a software consulting firm and was able to negotiate excellent terms.
“The most important thing to me is I was not alone,” she said. “Before, I was doing this alone. I didn’t know who to talk to. I didn’t know there were so many people like me in my area.”
For more information, contact Bill Tauskey at (650) 340-9254 or bill.tauskey@igpartnersinc.com.
From December 11, 2009 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
By Rick DelVecchio
