| Church-Business
Partnership Should be Inspiration for Orlando
Published in The Orlando
Sentinel on March 25, 1999
It all started three and a half years
ago, when Christopher Mangum's Raleigh, N.C., highway construction
company landed a contract to pave the parking lot of an
African-American church.
While visiting the job site one day, Mangum remarked to
the pastor that he had 10 trucks parked back at the office
because he couldn't find workers to drive them.
The pastor replied that his church had people "parked"
in the pews who could not find jobs.
What came out of that conversation is a remarkable partnership
between businesses and churches in Raleigh -- one that so
far has provided employment for more than 200 people.
The success of the Jobs Partnership, as the Raleigh project
is known, is catching the attention of communities across
the country. Mangum was in Orlando last week, attending
a planning session for WorkForce 2020, the welfare-to-work
program being organized by the Orlando Regional Chamber
of Commerce.
The Jobs Partnership was formed by two dozen churches and
businesses. Eighty churches and 100 businesses are now involved.
Together they created a 12-week training program for the
unemployed. As you might gather from the length of the program,
it covers more than job interview and work skills.
The organizers think people cannot be sound employees without
sound personal lives. So part of the training includes conflict
resolution and other skills necessary for good personal
relationships. While job candidates in the program need
not be church members or religious, the Bible is used as
a textbook to teach ethical and moral principles, and the
churches provide personal mentors to the students.
The training program ends with an elaborate graduation ceremony.
Mangum noted that some of the participants have never graduated
from anything in their lives, so the organizers want to
reward them for completing the program. Businesses that
hire the graduates also provide on-the-job mentors, known
as buddies, who receive financial rewards for their success
in coaching.
Eighty percent of the 300 people who have started the training
program have graduated. And 90 percent of the graduates
are now in full-time jobs, Mangum said. He also said the
turnover rate among graduates hired by his company has been
lower than that of other new employees.
For Orlando, the Raleigh experience offers several lessons:
Even in a tight labor market, there are sources being overlooked.
As low as the unemployment rate is in Orlando, it is even
lower in Raleigh, at 1.7 percent. Through the churches,
Raleigh businesses are finding unemployed people who have
fallen through the cracks of state and private social service
agencies.
On-the-job mentoring is critical in helping people unaccustomed
to employment learn what is expected of them. The Jobs Partnership
began without the buddy system. Its inclusion improved employee
retention and performance.
Also important is the personal mentoring by the churches.
It provides community support and encouragement for people
making the adjustment from welfare to work.
Transition often comes slowly, requiring patience on the
part of employers. Particularly among the homeless, it can
take up to two years to make the change from the "unemployed"
state of mind to the "worker" state of mind, Mangum
said.
Businesses, too, may need to change their state of mind
if they are to be successful in recruiting and retaining
such workers. Mangum rarely uses such terms as "the
homeless" or "welfare recipients." Instead,
he talks about his "neighbors."
In co-founding the Jobs Partnership, Mangum helped his business.
But he also helped his neighbors gain the same things he
enjoys: economic independence and a sense of self-worth.
"I was disconnected from the crisis in our community,"
he said. But then he met the pastor in the church parking
lot.
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