For the last several years I have worked for an organization that attempts to train individuals (mostly single black mothers) facing “barriers to employment” for entry-level positions within the banking and call center industries…
Some have been referred to us by vocational and private rehabilitation services as well as the department of social services…
Some are self-referrals to the program because they’re tired of working their dead-end shack jobs and think the money’s going be thicker and greener if they can only get a job as a bank teller or an administrative assistant or a customer service call center rep…
Some come into the program with felonies and misdemeanors…(simple assaults, child abuse, larceny, possession of drugs, possession of drugs with intent to sell, welfare fraud, worthless check charges)…
Some are victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse…
Some are dependent on drugs and alcohol…
Some pay their rent by prostituting themselves or selling drugs…
Some are only there because a social worker has told them their WorkFirst benefits are about to expire and unless they get serious about breaking the cycle of being dependent on public assistance, they’re going to be back on the streets hooking or dealing crack for a living… (a few will disregard this warning and choose to return to the streets because they can make more money there)…
Some are there because they were hurt on the job and are awaiting a ruling on their workman’s compensation claim against an employer that sent them to a doctor who determined they were able to return to active service and be retrained for another position…
It is my team’s responsibility as trainers/caseworkers, to ensure that these individuals are fully-equipped with the tools necessary for them to be able to achieve competitive employment…
That’s our goal…
My team’s placement rate for the year is hovering somewhere around 32.65%… it should be over 80%, according to our manager…
But how are we supposed to place individuals into competetive employment when so many of them don’t even want to be there in the first place?… or shouldn’t be there?… or don’t know how to be there because poverty and negativity is all they’ve ever known… ?
How do we train individuals for a job with a company that will not hire them because they’re convicted felons…?
How do we get a recruiter interested in a candidate who’s held fourteen jobs within the span of a year and a half…?
Many of these individuals are so beaten down and psychologically disabled that they’ll never even get past the first interview because of their poor attitude or inability to communicate effectively…
Yet they keep enrolling in the program…and we keep trying to train them…and the Leadership Team’s panties remain in a perpetual bunch because, in their view, our placement rate is so completely unfathomable…
Well, Leadership Team, how about populating the classroom with individuals who want to go to work? Who actually want to show up to class? Who can speak in coherant sentences? Who don’t dress like they’re going out to the club? Who are only there so they can continue to receive their welfare benefits?
How about that, Leadership Team?
How about giving your instructors the resources necessary for them to be able to perform their jobs effectively, instead of expecting them to build a house with some cardboard, a few sheets of tin, and a fistful of thumb tacks…?
Pretty novel idea, right…?
Or maybe the program was never designed to be successful…? Maybe it’s just there in order to show the community and its civic leaders that you’re really doing something to improve the lives of those individuals who have such barriers to employment…? Maybe funding for organizations like yours will always trickle down like subsidies from Heaven, regardless of how many individuals you serve or what your placement or retention rates are…?
If that’s the case, then I need to start my own nonprofit company so I can start racking up some of that highly coveted grant blood money…
I just need to find a way to knock back my conscience because I’ll be exploiting entire subcultures of people…
And that takes a very special talent…
