When times are tough, many folks turn to the church for help and comfort. These days, many Birmingham area churches are providing something else -- help with job searches.
With the seven-county metro area in the grip of a punishing recession that sent its unemployment rate surging to a quarter-century high of 11 percent earlier this year, churches are stepping up efforts to help job seekers, establishing career ministries and hosting job fairs.
More than a dozen churches with career ministries are listed on the website of Career Assistance Network-Birmingham, founded last year by Gerriann Fagan, a human resources consultant; Gayle Lantz, a leadership consultant; and Lou Thibodeaux, archdeacon of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama.
Many of those ministries have emerged over the last year, said Mike Coffey, who founded what is considered the pioneering career assistance ministry at Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church 25 years ago.
"This is an issue I'm so passionate about," Coffey said. "I know what it's like to be out of work."
After losing his job in the mid-1980s, Coffey approached his pastor at Vestavia Methodist about leading an effort to assist other unemployed church members. Coffey's Career Assistance Ministry continues to hold meetings on the first and second Monday of each month to provide networking opportunities, tips on job leads and mentors for folks struggling to find work.
In addition, Coffey also heads Career Assistance LLC, a for-profit company that provides one-on-one counseling for job seekers across the Birmingham metro area. Coffey, who helped introduce Career Assistance Network organizers to churches he has assisted, said the network is a welcome sight at a time when so many people remain on the unemployment rolls.
Though the Birmingham jobless rate fell to 9 percent in July, down from 11 percent in February, Coffey said frustrations remain high among both long-term job seekers as well as those under-employed and those who have given up looking for work.
"People are hurting," he said. "Networking is the key to finding leads on jobs. That's where the church can step in. At Vestavia United Methodist, we've seen just as many people from outside the church as we do members at our meetings."
Coffey said he has on average 15 to 20 people at each meeting. "If you look at that over 25 years, the number is well into the thousands," he said.
Coffey said it's hard to estimate how many of those people have found jobs over the years because he tends to not hear from them unless they become unemployed again.
"Our success is measured in the people that don't come back," Coffey said.
Lantz, president of WorkMatters, a leadership consulting firm, said she is glad to see more churches become active in helping the public find jobs. Since the Career Assistance Network was formed 18 months ago, many churches that don't have career ministries have referred members to its website, can-b.net, or joined via LinkedIn, she said.
Its monthly meetings rotate from church to church.
"We've gotten to the point where we are expanding beyond churches," Lantz said, adding that the group's next meeting will take place at the Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce on Sept. 27 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Lantz said the meetings draw between 30 and 50 people. She said getting a gauge on how many have found work is difficult because those who are successful often don't come back.
"It is hard to track, but we hear anecdotally about people who have gotten jobs thanks to our programs," Lantz said. "We've had some of those with success stories come back and speak at our meetings. It gives job seekers hope and encouragement."
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