This Catholic parish has helped hundreds of people find work

"I think the greatest gift we can make to the poor is to teach them how to find work so that they can provide for their needs."

On Monday morning in a restaurant in Irvine, California, volunteers from the nearby parish of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (SEAS) meet two to seven unemployed people looking for work to offer them useful advice so that they can find new jobs. . The SEAS Ministry of Labor was launched during the 2008 recession and has since helped hundreds of people to find profitable jobs.

The Church may not be the first place people think when they need help finding a job, said Michael Aimola, co-director of the ministry with Virginia Sullivan and Brian Wolf and a volunteer since its launch, "but we have people sitting in the desks Sunday after Sunday who need help finding work, so why not offer them the help they need? "

Those seeking help from the ministry are often older workers laid off from long-term jobs who have no idea how to start a job search. Aimola continued: “The application process is noticeably different than 10 or 15 years ago. People come to us who have no idea what LinkedIn is, have no idea how to write a resume or are unfamiliar with the candidate tracking computer system that is so common today. "

Brainchild of the parochial deacon

The Ministry of Labor was devised by SEAS deacon Steve Greco, who started it after speaking with a parishioner in his fifties in 2008. She had been fired from her thirty-year position with a company and did not know how to find a new job. The Greek deacon said: "I was moved by his circumstances and I knew there were many others in his circumstances."

He recruited Wolf to lead the ministry, as did Sullivan, who works professionally as a career consultant and makes himself available in a supporting role. The new ministry introduced job seekers to effectively resume writing, Internet tools such as LinkedIn, networks and paired them with tutors to help with job searches. Deacon Greco was a pharmaceutical executive and can offer advice on effective interviews, including telling job seekers to be ready with a 30-second "elevator talk" about their background, skills and the type of job they are looking for. He added: “And I would like to remind them that they are not on vacation; they have to work just as hard to get a new job as they would if they had a job. "

He also stressed the inclusion of a spiritual component in Ministry of Labor meetings, which would include reading and praying the scriptures, along with the question: where are you spiritually? He explained: "There is an emotional stigma in being unemployed - or," in transition ", as we like to say - there are also challenges and family tensions when people ask:" How will I pay the bills? "The spiritual component provides help in these areas and is crucial."

Effective curriculum

Sullivan's specialty is to help jobseekers develop effective resumes. Candidate curriculums are often poorly structured and full of grammatical errors. He also noted that resumes today are often read by computer scanners and not by humans, so getting to know someone within a company who can take a resume and give it to a decision maker is always helpful.

He also noted that if a candidate were to give an interview, he must be able to demonstrate how his resume matches a job posting and why he should be chosen above the others. Being on LinkedIn with the right content is also the key, he added.

Sullivan is a SEAS parishioner who has been involved in the Ministry of Labor since 2009 and believes he has helped more than 200 find work with the help of the ministry. He said: “We have worked with people in desperate circumstances. A woman I know who continued to lose her job after work was able to get her dream job with our help. We have been able to change people's lives for the better. It is very rewarding. "

The Greek deacon, now retired and dedicated full time to his ministry Spirit Filled Hearts (www.spiritfilledhearts.org), has noted that it is one of the ministry's success stories. He recalled: "I had a new opportunity and they helped me move on to a new job."

The Greek deacon believes that those who are in the workforce have an obligation to help those seeking to join it, so the SEAS Ministry of Labor is "something that every parish should have". The ministry is part of the Church's social justice mission, he continued, because "while social justice involves things like feeding the poor, prison ministry and helping families find refuge, I think the greatest gift we can give to the poor is teach them how to find work so they can provide for their needs.