Jose, who lives in St. Angelo, Texas, attributes a lot of changes in his life to the Christian Men’s Job Corps (CMJC). “If it had not been for CMJC, I would probably be back in jail,” he said.
A former prison inmate, Jose became a Christian this year through the first men’s job corps and is now an active member of a church in Texas. This new ministry, formed to give men vocational training and biblical values, was born out of the Christian Women’s Job Corps (CWJC), which began in 1997.
Jean Cullen, national coordinator for CWJC, said both the women’s and men’s job corps are two ministries of Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU). “The program works to help women, and now men, move toward self-sufficiency,” Cullen said. “It also helps them gain life skills and employment skills.”
The job corps sites are spread out across the United States and every state has a coordinator.
“There are 96 registered Christian Women’s Job Corps sites that are up and running and about 30 more are in the works,” said Cullen. “There are two such sites in Birmingham.”
Cullen said a typical job corps class lasts from six to eight weeks and is held several nights a week.
“Each night they’ll have a Bible study, and then share a meal with their mentors, and then have a class on anything from budgets to computers,” she said. “There are also classes on subjects like obtaining a GED, parenting skills and English as a Second Language.”
Cullen said the North American Mission Board and the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) saw what success the CWJC was having among women and thought the same concept could work for men.
“The first Christian Men’s Job Corps site began about a year ago in St. Angelo, Texas, as a satellite site of a Christian Women’s Job Corps,” Cullen said. “They have graduated six so far (including Jose) and now have another class of seven men.They came to Alabama in August to officially register as a job corps site through WMU. ”
Richard Alford, an associate in the SBOM associational and cooperative missions office, said he’s become increasingly interested in starting a Christian Men’s Job Corps in Alabama. “We discovered that the National WMU was willing to work with us in a collaborative effort so we didn’t need to re-create the program,” Alford said. “We just have to masculinize it.”
In November, a training session will be held in Montgomery for four associations — Montgomery, Marshall, Calhoun and Etowah — which are starting pilot job corps sites. “We’re just in the first stage of this program,” Alford said. “We’re exceedingly interested in taking this to a larger scale. It’s critical to assist men — not just those who are poverty stricken but also in redirecting unemployed men.
“The whole concept is Christian-centered,” he said. “The intent behind the mentoring is to meet spiritual needs as well as assisting with interviewing and employment skills.”
Cullen said at every job corps site the following must happen:
–An advisory council is formed.
–A needs assessment of the community is done.
–Every participant must be involved in a Bible study and have a mentor.
–Evaluations must be performed.
–There must be networking and connecting resources in the community.
–Each site must agree to be part of the national program and follow guidelines.
–Each site coordinator must attend national certification training.
“Women who are interested in helping first get trained, then form an advisory council, find out what resources they have, and get participants and mentors,” Cullen said.
“This can happen one on one, in class settings, and everything in between.”
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