East-side networking group helps
job seekers with support, leads
No one needs to be told the current recession has taken jobs from workers at all levels on the pyramid, from minimum-wage earners to the CEO of General Motors. Most find themselves back on the market sooner or later.
Eastside Take Control (ETC) is a support group for people who are looking for work, whether through layoff or another transition that has them back on the job market. Mary Ellen Brayton and a few others started the ecumenical group at St. Paul on the Lake Catholic Church about a year ago to help the local community. Meetings rotate between St. Paul and four other churches.
Each one-hour meeting provides updates on group activities, information on a specific job search-related topic (resumes, interviewing skills, budgeting, spirituality and success stories), as well as time to network. Many jobs available today are not advertised, but are found through networking, which ETC seeks to facilitate.
Sarah Sharp, the site coordinator at St. Ambrose church, thinks this group is necessary because “this is a particularly tough time for the people of Metro Detroit and the country in general... Job loss is somewhat like a death and for people to have multiple resources (family, friends, groups, church) is helpful.”
“As one of the leaders, I hope as (the group members) participate they receive a sense of community in their transition, a feeling of hope and an introduction to valuable resources and ideas to help them shorten their transition,” says the site coordinator at St. Paul Catholic Church, Steven Wulfekuhle.
Robert Crowley, an ETC member, said, “Collecting together, we are not isolated in our homes with our thoughts, obsessing about our past, rather than envisioning a future of new possibilities...The fact is most of us will have to go through a life change where past expectations have disappeared, never to return in our lifetimes. Many jobs will cease to exist or will be greatly modified in their present form in terms of salary, required skills and future potential.”
These changes in the world of employment make it even more important for people of diverse backgrounds to combine what they know to make this difficult time in their lives a bit easier for one another. Members are able to learn new things about current career prospects they may not have known otherwise.
In the words of Gina Homminga, the lead volunteer at Grace Community Church, “It is beautiful that this group crosses socio-economic and also denominational borders.”
The meetings, which are free and open to the public, take place Monday mornings from 7:30 – 8:30 a.m. and rotate between four area churches: Grace Community Church, St. Paul’s, St. Ambrose, Grosse Pointe Memorial Church and Christ Church Grosse Pointe. For more information, e-mail Sarah Sharp .
