Eric Nokes was having trouble finding a job. Plus, he was doing community service, part of a sentence in a Missouri drug court. But when he began doing community service at North East Community Action Corporation (NECAC), staff there also entered him into the Expanding Your Employability program. That put him on a path to finding work.
"I'd been out of work for about a year and a half," Nokes said. "When they enrolled me in the EYE program, I began getting the information I needed." Staff showed Nokes, who didn't have much computer experience, how to do job searches through Indeed. They asked him questions to help him practice for interviews.
Was he a fast learner? Yes.
Could he lift heavy boxes? Yes.
"I got over my shyness of having to talk to someone I didn't know," he says. Three weeks later, when he went to do an interview, he was hired on the spot. He's been employed ever since, and reports to work each morning at 8 a.m. to ship welding supplies. His boss is understanding of the times he needs to leave work to meet with a counselor, he says.
NECAC is one of 69 NeighborWorks network organizations doing workforce development, according to a 2020 survey. According to NeighborWorks' office of corporate strategy and impact, "workforce development" includes job training, job placement and/or retention, referral services and sector-specific training.
"They're serious and they want to succeed in life," Linda Fritz, county services program director at NECAC, says of the clients who have joined the EYE program. "We want to make sure they have what they need to become successful."
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the community surrounding NECAC, Fritz shares, with residents reporting job losses, particularly in the area of hospitality and construction. While overall, the state of Missouri posted more gross job gains than job losses between by November of 2021, recovery continues. The EYE program is helping individuals move to the next level. Fritz says the program can help a range of residents, including those who have recently been incarcerated or homeless, and those aging out of the foster care system. Next steps include finding employers who might be willing to sponsor EYE participants in an apprenticeship program. Fritz says a new simulation program may help local employers see how the program can help participants get a chance at a new life.
NECAC already had a job training program called SkillUp, which allowed SNAP recipients get free help with skills, training and employer connections that could lead to better jobs. "That program allows us to help with rent, utilities, childcare, car repairs – anything that is a barrier to them becoming employed," Fritz says. But there were still a number of individuals who were not eligible for food stamps but still fell within income guidelines for job training help. The EYE program is a way to reach those individuals.
"We had been wanting to do an employment program for quite a while, but we didn't have the funding to do it," Fritz says. So far, they've enrolled 19 individuals and moved five forward to new, more gainful employment. With a new personnel change, they're hoping to enroll more.
"I am a firm believer in the saying ‘Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime!'" says Fritz.
Fritz's advice for other network organizations that might consider an employee training program:
- Partner with employers and find out what skills they may be seeking in new employees
- Come up with a unique way to generate interest in the program. "We have advertised on billboards throughout our service area as well as conducted presentations for various social groups," Fritz says.
- Build confidence. "Everyone can be successful," Fritz says. "We just need to build their confidence and help them see that they are very worthwhile and worthy of a satisfying career."
