Advancing Jobs for Life on Two Fronts in Decatur, Alabama
Barbara Hazelwood
May 2009

Pamela Bolding first heard about Jobs for Life at the 2007 PCA Mercy Ministries Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. While there, she had the opportunity to hear David Spickard, President and CEO of Jobs for Life, present the Biblically-based strategy for equipping men and women - both for work and for life in Christ - that is at the heart of the Jobs for Life curriculum. Pamela and her husband, Tim Bolding, were already heavily involved in helping to meet the "practical and spiritual needs of the poor" in Decatur, Alabama, through their work as executive directors of the Neighborhood Christian Center. However, Pamela believed that Jobs for Life could be yet another arrow in their quiver as they sought "to help people break the cycle of poverty" in their local community.
 
Despite their deep interest in the program, it took several months for Pamela and Tim to acquire the needed funding and to find the right target group of students to lead through the Jobs for Life curriculum. The funding eventually came from a member of the local Rotary Club who, after hearing the Boldings speak on their desire to start a Jobs for Life site, was moved to help make it possible. Before Pamela and Tim even knew when, where, and with whom, their first Jobs for Life instructional kit was purchased for them. Not long after that, Pamela saw an opportunity for conducting their inaugural class at the Decatur Dream Center, a substance abuse recovery center for women.
 
The Decatur Dream Center is a residential program, providing the opportunity for women recovering from substance abuse to live and learn together. During the course of the program, a woman can become eligible to seek employment externally. But being eligible and being equipped don't always go hand in hand. Pamela worked with the Dream Center to start up a small, in-house Jobs for Life class, so that the women interested in employment could gain Biblically-based insight into the value of work, into their own value as individuals, and into the process of becoming and remaining a valued employee.  
 
Now, a year-and-a-half later, Pamela has had the opportunity to conduct sixteen small Jobs for Life classes at the Dream Center. Though there are local businesses that consistently partner with the Boldings to interview Jobs for Life graduates, one of the recent graduates from the Dream Center, Joy Cowley, has found employment with the Boldings themselves, working along side them at the Neighborhood Christian Center. As Joy relates, not only does the Jobs for Life class teach practical skills, such as how to prepare for a job interview, it also "strengthens you spiritually," equips you with an "attitude of gratitude," and drives home the value of being a loyal and honest employee.
 
While Pamela was busy leading Jobs for Life classes for the women of the Decatur Dream Center, an opportunity arose for her husband, Tim, to lead classes for the men of the Limestone Correctional Facility pre-release program. Mitzi Johnson, a staff member at Limestone, had been praying for the opportunity to start such a pre-release program and had even been praying for the use of a specific building on the prison property. In the spring of 2008, the building was made available for such a use, and Mitzi began her search for appropriate program resources. She heard about the Bolding's work with the Jobs for Life curriculum, and asked them to partner with her in setting up a Jobs for Life site within the Limestone pre-release program. In November of 2008, Tim began leading regular classes there, along with a group of thirteen other business men. The fruits of their work will begin to be seen as the first group of men departs the pre-release program this spring.
 
At the time of this article, Pamela and Tim had been able to graduate almost one hundred students from the Jobs for Life program, and were about to break that milestone. Throughout this experience, Pamela affirms that "God increased [their] time and energy and strength" in order to complete the work set before them.