Upon returning home last year from serving two years in the U.S. Army, Asma Njesada said her greatest challenge was finding a job.
“I couldn’t understand what was wrong with me,” said the 25 year-old Dallas resident.
After being unemployed for more than six months, Njesada turned to Platform to Employment (P2E) for help.
P2E provides veterans and the long-term unemployed with job training and placement. The initiative launched a nationwide pilot program this year, and started accepting applications in Chicago last month.
The WorkPlace, southwestern Connecticut’s regional Workforce Development Board, started the program back in 2011 and it expanded to Dallas in February. Njesada took a five-week preparation course via the P2E program and was connected with a personal job developer who helped her improve her interviewing skills.
“The program changed my life,” she said.
On May 27, Njesada was hired-on as a human resources manager for Baker Brother Services (BBS), a company that provides accounting and human resources services to Home Depot.
“It’s a great feeling to be in the workforce again,” Njesada said. “Having a career is very important to me.”
In Illinois, the program is looking for applicants who are at least 50 years-old and have exhausted 26 weeks or more of unemployment. The Illinois program is also being offered to veterans that are aged 30 and under. Applications for Illinois residents are being accepted until May 10.
There are 24 available slots and classes are scheduled to start May 20.
“We need to get people back to work in a way that we haven’t done before,” said Karin Norington-Reaves, chief executive officer of the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership. According to Norington-Reaves, Chicagoland’s P2E program has already received more than 600 applications.
The Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership is partnering with The WorkPlace to bring P2E to the Chicagoland area.
Norington-Reaves said individuals who haven’t been in the workforce for an extended period of time, such as veterans and the long-term unemployed, face unique barriers such as unfamiliarity with online applications and social media.
“If you haven’t been in the workforce for a long time and haven’t been in the process of trying to enter the workforce for a long time … You’ve really got to get a new understanding of how to get through the process just to get hired,” she said.
As of last year, unemployment rates for people between the ages of 50 and 65 had more than doubled since the 2008 economic downturn. That demographic saw the largest increases in unemployment during the recession.
Unemployment rates for veterans are also staggeringly high, reaching an average of 9.9 percent in 2012, which is well above last year’s national average of 8.1 percent. As of January, 205,000 of the veterans that served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were unemployed.
“Nobody in this program is handed a job, or guaranteed a job, but what we’re trying to do is get people ready to go out and demonstrate to an employer they have value and should be considered,” said Tom Long, the vice president of communications and development for The WorkPlace.
The five-week course offers interviewing techniques, networking development, resume building exercises, financial education and behavioral health services, which are also offered to the participants’ families. Each participant is assigned a personal job developer upon completion of the course. The developer’s job is to help the participant set-up interviews and also coach them through the application process.
The program also offers up to eight weeks of partial wage reimbursement for employers.
The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has signed on to help fund the P2E fund program, specifically for the training of the long-term unemployed who are aged 50 older. The Walmart Foundation is supporting the training for veterans and Citi Community Development is providing financial education.
The first P2E program in Bridgeport, Connecticut saw 65 of 100 participants permanently placed in jobs. This year, the program has expanded to Dallas, Boston, Denver, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis, San Francisco, San Diego, Cincinnati and Chicago.
“There is a significant demand for initiatives such as this in Chicagoland,” said Norington-Reaves. “Our intent is to use this as an opportunity to try and garner additional attention and funds to support this initiative and eventually make it a sustainable program.”
With the curriculum based off Connecticut’s pioneer program, Chicago’s classes, which run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday, are being hosted at Chicago’s DeVry University, at 225 West Washington St.
Njesada if it hadn’t been for P2E she doesn’t know where she would be today, adding that her job provides her a “decent wage” and health insurance.
“When I got out of the military I was very optimistic about finding a job, but after months and months past I lost hope,” she said. “The P2E program really boosted by confidence.”
“P2E gave me what I needed to find what I was looking for — I feel normal again.”
Article source: http://progressillinois.com/quick-hits/content/2013/05/02/job-assistance-veterans-and-long-term-unemployed-comes-chicago