Group support is key to Camden's job search club - Camden, New Jersey; food stamp program

Food and Nutrition, July, 1987 by Cynthia Bumber

Group Support Is Key to Camden's Job Search Club

Standing in front of a class of 20 people, a woman told her story.

She had graduated from high school in 1968, and afterwards had worked as a secretary. She got married and continued working until her first child was born. Her husband made enough money to support them, so she was able to stay home and be a fulltime mother.

When she became a widow a little over 2 years ago, things changed. She found herself on social security and on food stamps. She was alone and solely responsible for her family, which had, by then, grown to five children. She thought about work and decided to get some training to improve her basic secretarial skills.

As she spoke, everyone listened intently. They knew that each would have a turn to stand up and speak out about what it's like to be unemployed or looking for a job.

The young woman and her classmates were participating in a very special job search club, run by the Camden, New Jersey, Employment and Training Division. The purpose of the 2-week club is to help food stamp, welfare, and unemployment compensation benefit recipients find work.

"In order to continue receiving food stamp benefits, non-exempt food stamp recipients must register for our employment and training program,' says Frank Ambrose, Camden's food stamp job search coordinator.

"Most of these people, except for a few, have to actively look for a job. We call it "self-directed job search.' If they don't find some kind of work within a certain period of time, they are then required to come to our job search club.'

Helping recipients help themselves

"What makes our job club different from other clubs is our training classes,' says Ambrose. "We have what we call ACE--Action for Career Employment. ACE is built on the idea that the key to finding a job is personal confidence and self-esteem.'

Ambrose explains that many people on food stamps and welfare really want to work but, because they lack self-esteem, have difficulty communicating their strengths and talents to employers.

"With the ACE program,' he says, "we attempt to build self-confidence, self-discipline, self-expression, and self-awareness.'

With each session, participants progress through a series of exercises, all aimed at building self-confidence. Participants give speeches to the class, practice introducing themselves to strangers they may meet at a bus stop or while food shopping, and openly discuss with the rest of the class their fears about work or rejection.

"What we try to do,' says Ambrose, "is to get participants to start visualizing themselves as successful--picturing themselves in a job, getting a paycheck, and so on.

"Unlike most job clubs,' he continues, "we don't spend the bulk of our time orienting clients on the technical aspects of finding a job, like dressing appropriately, filling out applications, writing letters, or resumes.

"We learned that this approach was particularly self-defeating for food stamp or welfare recipients who are faced with the reality of answering questions such as, "What is your work history?' or "What have you done over the past 2 or 3 or 5 years?''

ACE instructors strive to motivate participants to be aggressive about finding a job--to call or visit employers in order to convince them they are "right' for a particular position. To accomplish this, Ambrose and his staff continually focus on the positive.

"You have to ignore the negatives,' Ambrose says, "especially those things we all keep hearing about in the news called "barriers to employment,' like transportation, child care, or resumes.

"If someone really wants to work, the "barriers' can be dealt with. One thing we, as program administrators, can do is to all work a little harder to discard the notion of "barriers.''

Group support helpful to many

During the second week of the ACE program, the class meets at the New Jersey State Bureau of Employment Services building in Camden. "At this site, we run two major activities,' says Ambrose, "Unemployment Anonymous and a telephone bank.'

Unemployment Anonymous works on the same principle as Alcoholics Anonymous or Overeaters Anonymous. Participants talk about what it's like to be out of a job, have no money, or live on welfare, and they give each other valuable support.

Former ACE participants who were successful in finding jobs are invited to come and speak at these sessions. "This is the best medicine you can find for the class,' says Ambrose. "There is nothing like someone who recently found a job coming back and talking about it.'

The telephone bank also offers group support. During this activity, participants accelerate their job search efforts by devoting 3 or 4 hours a day to making calls to employers. The atmosphere is one of enthusiasm and mutual support.

"The group support is there when you go to make that first contact with an employer,' says Ambrose. "It's a lot easier to begin dialing those phone numbers when someone else is right there doing it, too.'

Efforts have been successful