A reflection on CEF’s Job Partners program, by Priya Sreenivasan

This summer, I’ve had the chance to work very closely with the employment side of CEF, which includes Job Partners! Throughout the summer, Doug, Hannah and I have been contacting employers in the local Chapel Hill area to see if they would be willing to sign on and be a partner employer. By joining as a partner employer, businesses have the opportunity hire qualified, work-ready candidates who have graduated from CEF’s rigorous employment program. Through persistent outreach, we’ve recruited several amazing new area employers to bring our list of Job Partners Employers to include:

– Elmo’s Diner

– Carolina Coffee Shop

– Lime Fresh

– Top This Burger

– Carol Woods Retirement Community

– Carolina Brewery

– The Franklin Hotel

– Fosters Market

– Bagels on the Hill

– Ben and Jerry’s

– Right at Home

– UNC-Chapel Hill Temporary Services

– PTA Thrift Shop

We are so excited by the community investment these employers are making by signing up as Job Partner Employers, and we hope others will follow their lead. Doug and Hannah have been hard at work contacting potential employers, and I know we all agree that it’s all worth it when someone gets a great job they love with a Job Partner employer. I’m excited to see the program grow this upcoming year, and I know with CEF behind it, it’s going to turn out some great results!

Interested in becoming a partner employer or know of an employer who you recommend we contact? Let’s connect! Contact jobs@communityempowermentfund.org.

The short but meaningful quote, “CEF is for doers,” graces the top of the information sheet handed out at CEF’s New Member Orientations. Led by CEF alumni Dorothy and Tony, this hour-long session is exactly what it sounds like: a place for new members to become familiar with the resources offered by CEF. And by simply attending this meeting, they are already taking their first steps as doers.

Sarah Cohn has been instrumental in helping create and jumpstart this new program. She says that it came about because many people were coming into the office having been introduced to CEF in many different ways. Because of this, Sarah said, “people had varying understandings of what CEF membership looked like.” If you’ve ever seen CEF on a busy day, you will understand how a proper introduction to who we are and what we offer can easily slip through the cracks.

New Member Orientation is a work-in-progress, with kinks being worked out as the program continues. For now, the basic structure of the session consists of two parts: an introduction to the idea of member-advocate relationships, and an explanation of programs and services available to members. As Sarah said, “we’re more than open to suggestions!” However, after attending the orientation myself, it seems to be going off without a hitch. Introductions at commencement allow each person to be heard and recognized, and after the program explanations by Dorothy and Tony, there is plenty of time for questions from new members about specifics. When asked about the benefits of this program, Dorothy said that new members “get to ask more questions that they might not get to ask with their advocate.” She explained that there might be some intimidation in meeting someone new, and New Member Orientation allows the opportunity for an informal and holistic introduction to the services provided by CEF. There is even the chance to schedule one’s first appointment right after orientation! Talk about getting off on the right foot.

Current members in attendance heralded CEF for its ability to hold you accountable, provide a place to be heard, and, of utmost importance, give you somebody to walk with in the journey to reach your goals. Sarah reflected on what her hopes are for this program: “With the new orientation serving as a universal introduction point, we hope that everyone will get the most they can out of CEF by knowing in full detail what’s available to them – especially the relationship base of what we do.”

by Krunal Amin

In a series of conversations with CEF members during the past few weeks, I was surprised to learn just how large of a delivery gap there is between the healthcare resources offered to those who are financially disadvantaged and the number of people who are actually positively affected by these resources. One member, who recently moved to the Chapel Hill community, told us that she often has no choice but to go to the emergency room whenever she has issues with her asthma – a common chronic condition that can usually be well controlled with drugs. When asked about her medication, she reported that the Piedmont Clinic in Carrboro filled out a prescription for her – but the medication ended up costing her around $90 so she never even bothered to pick it up. As for the cost of her multiple emergency room visits? She has a stack of bills from the hospital adding up to over $5000 that she simply can’t afford and doesn’t know how she plans on paying off. Had she known about the UNC Health Care Pharmacy Assistance Policy, she could have completed an application to prove that she qualified for financial assistance and ultimately could have reduced her $90 prescription to a much more manageable $4 co-payment, thus allowing her to not only have access the to the medication she needs to stay health but also potentially saving her thousands of dollars in medical bills. Unfortunately, applications to programs such as UNC Charity Care and Pharmacy Assistance are not always the most user-friendly forms to fill out as there are often many hoops to jump through to prove that you qualify. Additionally, many of the members we spoke with were unaware of other avenues they could be using to get better care.

In his bestselling novel, The Checklist Manifesto, surgeon and healthcare reform expert Atul Gawande points out that “medical innovation is less about discovering new inventions than it is about properly executing the ones we already have.” CEF Health is an initiative that aims to do just that by employing advocates to better connect our members to the resources they need to stay healthy. Over the course of the semester, our team has been working to compile all the healthcare resources available for financially disadvantaged members in the community. Our goal in the coming months is to train advocates in what resources are out there and how to access them in order to use them as health navigators for CEF members who are struggling to get the quality, affordable healthcare they deserve. We are excited to get this initiative off the ground, and hope that anyone interested will join us!

If you would like to get involved with JobPartners as a participant or partner employer, please email us at info@communityempowermentfund.org

By Victoria Castillo

A job search can often be a difficult and tedious task. More difficult yet, is the search for the job– your dream job.   Whether you grew up dreaming of becoming an astronaut or a receptionist, your dream job is a treasure that most of us tend to take for granted. Some of us tend to believe that our dream job is simply out of reach. Whether it is due to a lack of education, the correct skill-set, self-confidence or a blemished record, we simply don’t try to go after our dream job.

The vicarious talk show host, Oprah Winfrey, once said, “The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” We at CEF believe that it is never too late to go after your dreams. It is never too late to go after that adventure.

Our Job Partners program aims to unearth the dusty and forgotten dream jobs that belong to some of our members, and create a path on which they can arrive to them.  Job Partners was created by the Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness (OCPEH), “a community effort to fight poverty and eradicate homelessness in Orange County.” CEF is one of several organizations that partner with this county initiative to pair work-ready individuals with an available job in the community.

The Job Partner process begins with the community members serving as employer liaisons who network with local business owners to learn of available job positives and willing employers. Liaisons then refer job openings to the partner organizations, like CEF, who match qualified candidates with those positions. Our Job Partners graduates receive no preferential treatment from the employers. They fill out job applications and schedule interviews, just like everybody else. Their strength, however, is found in the personal recommendations that they receive on our behalf – a voice of support that lets the employers know that we truly believe that our candidate will succeed at their business.

The Job Partner Program motto reads, “Prepare, Place, Prosper,” and we at CEF believe that the program lives up to these three words. We prepare our candidates through job coaching sessions and Opportunity classes, we place them in positions in which we believe they will succeed and we carry the hope and faith that they will prosper in their new job position – in their new adventure.

Q&A with Job Partner Graduate Loretha Greene

When did you first start working on becoming a Job Partner candidate?

I began the process early in 2012.

Understanding that the program was a long term commitment, how did you remain motivated through the process of becoming a Job Partner graduate?

I was starting from scratch in my life. I saw a lot of opportunities in the program, like the Opportunity Classes, that I knew would help me, so I kept a positive attitude. I know that when you have a positive attitude, good things will happen, so that’s what I tried to do.

Were there difficult moments in the process?

The most difficult experience was simply not being able to find a job right away. But I kept going – every day, I filled out job applications and maintained a good attitude about it.

How did the Job Partner program differ from a regular job search?

I found more connections to local employers, through Job Partners. I felt that my job search became a little easier in that way. I would get to know more people in the community because the people involved in the program had a lot of connections. This helped me land more interviews, and though I did not get a job right away, I was able to meet a lot of people.

What was your biggest take away from Job Partners?

The desire and motivation to help other people who need work. Job Partners made me want to become an advocate myself and help other people.

I also learned to accept suggestions and act on them. My advocates would give me advice, and point out things that I had never noticed! I learned to take these suggestions and work on making those changes in my life.

What advice would you give to others who are unsure about joining Job Partners?

Just try it, and stick with it. Don’t give up, because it is an excellent program.

Amazing. This month members of the Community Empowerment Fund (CEF) achieved a significant milestone, surpassing the $100,000 mark of collective savings deposits.

Now, almost three years since the program began, CEF members have cumulatively deposited over $100,000 towards their goals. As a result of all CEF savers:

•  34  have successfully moved out of transitional housing and into apartments
•  38 have prevented financial emergencies
•  40 members have successfully saved to purchase laptops
•  12 have purchased personal vehicles, achieving greater employability and mobility.
• Most uniquely, 1 member purchased a dairy cow for his family

To celebrate this milestone, CEF will host a public ceremony on Friday, April 5th at 6:45pm at UNC. The event will take place in the Pit, the center of UNC’s campus, during the 6th annual Box-Out, an awareness raising event about homelessness and a fundraiser for CEF. CEF will honor members in the savings program present members with a plaque to commemorate their collective achievement.

RSVP for the ceremony to Maggie West, maggiew@communityempowermentfund.org, (919) 200-0233.