Katrina’s Story
Neighbor to Neighbor, Raleigh NC

Katrina, a native of Raleigh, was invited to participate in the Jobs for Life class hosted by Neighbor to Neighbor Outreach after being laid off from a temporary position at RTI International earlier this year. Losing her job was a startling disappointment, not only because of the discouragement of being jobless, but because it came so abruptly on the heels of a successfully completed bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Saint Augustine’s College. Katrina wasn’t sure what the Jobs for Life class was all about, but hav­ing Royce Hathcock, Executive Director of Neighbor to Neighbor, and his wife, Julie promote the course to her was enough of an endorsement.

Today, when she talks about JfL training, Katrina always returns to the emphasis Jobs for Life places on the seamless connection between a spiritual life and a working life: “I realized that having God is not a separate lifestyle… that you can’t pick Him up and put Him down when it’s convenient.” She has learned to relate the humility that is required before God to a humility that is advantageous when seeking employment: “you have to be willing to show up on time, to wear appropriate attire, to put aside personal complaints, to accept instruction.”

For Katrina, JfL training helped mold in her: professional­ism, dedication, patience, a commitment to always be working to better herself. She is currently set on acquir­ing a cosmetology license, with the hope that one day she could own her own shop. It will be a long road, and she’s still at the beginning, waiting to hear if she’s been accepted to a community college program, but she says that “God supplies just enough” as she goes along – “My head is not held down.”