Job seekers find comfort, support, opportunity through church group
Job seekers find comfort, support, opportunity through church group
As a project manager for Perry Builders in Raleigh, Walt Lehman saw construction jobs through from beginning to end. He helped transform empty lots into homes for families.
That was up until March, anyway. Like so many others in the hard-hit homebuilding industry, the 29-year-old lost his job.
But he’s rebuilding, and he’s helping others who are out of work rebuild, too. This month he launched The Career Net, a networking group that meets each Wednesday at First Baptist Church of Elon, where he is a member. He got the idea for it in March when he attended a job fair in Raleigh, where he found out about The Career Net at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church. He decided to start a similar group of the same name.
Lehman says he did it to fill a need that, as far as he knows, isn’t really being met in Alamance County. He wanted to create a place where the unemployed and underemployed can come together to share their stories, network and improve their job search.
That means a lot for the 11.8 percent of the county’s residents who are currently unemployed as of March, according to the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina. When the market’s that tough, it’s easy to resign yourself to scouring online job boards instead of branching out into a community where it seems every other person you meet is looking for work.
Lehman says that’s one reason he started the group — to break out of that self-defeating mind set. “I know there’s a lot of people who are experiencing the same tunnel vision” that results when you don’t network, he says.
When Lehman first approached Rev. Mark Mofield, FBC of Elon’s senior pastor assumed there had to be a similar group in the community. But the more he and Lehman looked into it, the more they realized they could fill a niche.
“At that point it became exciting because we are meeting a need in our community,” says Mofield, who has been at FBC for eight years.
So Lehman got to work on lining up speakers and promoting the group through the media. You can even find the group online and via LinkedIn.com, a professional networking Web site.
According to the FBC site, the mission of The Career Net is to “cultivate leaders, provide a center of information, education and support to those working toward prosperity through an advanced career search, and foster relationships through extensive networking, keynote speakers and other special programs.”
But Mofield, who helps facilitate the meetings, says there’s another goal: “To provide authenticity and to provide grace.
“We want people to feel like they can come ... and share their honest feelings about where they are with their job search,” he says. The Career Net lets the unemployed “receive a word of hope, receive a word of comfort” from others, Mofield says. “Sometimes they just need a chance to get those things out.”
The group focuses on giving people the tools they need to find gainful employment. Attend a meeting in the church’s fellowship hall Wednesday, and you’ll see well-dressed professionals sharing their stories of their job search. You’ll hear their “elevator speeches” — brief summaries of what they’ve done and what they want to do next. And you’ll hear from a human resources specialist about résumé and cover letter tips.
Lehman has speakers lined up into June, and he hopes the group — and he recognizes this is simultaneously a good and bad thing — increases in size as the word gets around. At the group’s kickoff meeting May 6, Lehman closed the gathering by asking each attendee — there were around 20 — to bring one other person the next week, and to get that person to bring a friend, too. The hope is that as the network becomes larger, more job leads will develop as new members share what they know, and who they know.
Mofield ended that first meeting with a prayer. As attendees bowed their heads and closed their eyes, one particular request from the prayer stuck out: “God, may we be reminded that we are never alone,” Mofield said.
The attendees raised their heads and opened their eyes again. And the reminders were all right there, in each and every face of fellowship.
Contact Patrick Collins at 412-5934 or by e-mail at patrick.collins@news-record.com.
Want to go?
■ What: The Career Net
■ When: 8 to 9:15 a.m. Wednesdays
■ Where: First Baptist Church of Elon, 621 E. Haggard Ave., Elon
■ More information: Call 584-2735, e-mail thecareernetfbcelon@gmail.com or visit www.fbc-elon.org/The_Career_Net.htm.
