Life Lessons

Job training offers to help clients transform lives

Patients at the University of Chicago's Bernard Mitchell Hospital are in for a treat when Salwa Noaiman arrives with their meal trays.

Noaiman, a vivacious redhead, loves meeting new people, calling each a new friend, and says she has a smile and a word of encouragement for every patient she comes in contact with. Nearly all the patients smile back, Noaiman said, creating a connection that might dispel some of the patients' pain and fear. What she knows for sure is that it replaces the sadness she felt in her heart with joy.

"The people here are so nice," said Noaiman, who started working part-time in the hospital food service late last year. "They are always happy to see me. I love to come to work."

Noaiman had been separated from her husband for more than five years when she was finally able to leave her native Baghdad and join him in Chicago in 1995. While she and her husband both hold Iraqi law degrees, he was working three days a week in a flea market, and she found a factory job. As the economy slowed and orders dwindled, she was laid off last year.

Noaiman and her husband, struggling with high credit card bills and only one part- time income, found themselves in danger of losing their Northwest Side apartment. That, combined with the plight of her mother and five sisters still in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, left Noaiman with, she said, "sadness in her heart."

Salwa found her way to World Relief, a not-for-profit agency that aids immigrants and refugees, and they directed her to CARA, an employment training center housed on the campus of Old St. Patrick's Church on the near West Side.

There, she found new life.

"The first time I walked in, everyone smiled at me," she said. "They showed me that people were good. Before, I always thought people were bad. They taught me to think outside the box I was in."

That's no coincidence. "Thinking outside the box" is one of the five ways to transform your life that all CARA clients must remember and practice. The five—which include "change your behavior," "see with new eyes," "don't relax," and "know the deepest truth about who you are"—hang on banners from the ceiling of the room where CARA clients and staff start each day with a half-hour of motivational talks and songs.

Then, at 9 a.m., the workday begins.

Those just starting the CARA program spend the next seven and a half hours learning how to use a computer, starting with finding the on-off switch, if that's where they are, and working up to and through word processing, data entry, Power Point presentations and searching the Internet for leads on jobs.

They also will get lots of training on personal and interpersonal skills, from the importance of showing up on time, neatly groomed, to how to resolve a conflict with a coworker or a supervisor.

Those in later stages will do more practical training, in fields from commercial cleaning to food service and hospitality to health care.

And those who have finished their 12 weeks will spend their time in the computer, phone and fax rooms, looking for jobs. "We want to make it as much like a regular work experience as we can," said Meagen Mealer, a corporate account specialist who helps place CARA clients in jobs. "Then when our clients walk in the door to apply for a job, and they ask, 'Will you show up on time?' we can show them the records that they have shown up on time."

To participate, clients must be referred by another agency.

Through it all, and for a year after finding a job, each client meets with a support specialist to talk through any job-related issues and work the realities of every day life, from budgeting to finding affordable housing.

For Noaiman, that's Katie Bartlett, who meets with her in the lobby of the hospital. before her shift begins. Bartlett began working on budgeting with Noaiman while she was still at the CARA center, and she continues to do so. She also offered some pointers when Noaiman had a hard time getting along with a co-worker shortly after she started work, she said.

Since it was founded in 1991, CARA has placed more than 1,300 clients in jobs. Administrators expected to place 200 people in jobs last year, with 156 in full- time positions with benefits. They earned an average of $9.76 an hour from 88 different companies, and 73 percent stayed in their jobs for at last a year.

Asked what CARA needs most from the community, Stephanie Wernet (Director of Corporate Accounts had a one-word answer: "Jobs."
Those are hard to come by, as the Department of Labor announced in March that the economy had added only 21,000 new jobs in February. While the unemployment rate remained at 5.6 percent, more than 300,000 people dropped out of the labor force, leading to the lowest rate of participation in the labor market since 1988.

While CARA is an independent not-for-profit agency, it has working partnerships with several Catholic agencies, such as accepting referrals from Catholic churches and several Catholic Charities programs, for example. Old St. Patrick's Parish provides its office space—with parking—rent-free, and parishioners of Old St. Pat's often volunteer or donate to the clothes closet.

"We're not affiliated with any particular religious belief, but there is a spiritual undertone that runs through CARA," Mealer said. "You can really see that in the motivations. ... This is not just about getting a job. It's about, what is the greater meaning to me working? Is it self-respect, supporting my family? You may not like the first job you get, because it is entry level, but there is hope."

Mealer helped Noaiman find the job, working with the University of Chicago's Melissa Portner, who was then in human resources. Portner, who has since moved to another position within the hospital administration, said she liked working with CARA because they did a lot of the homework before presenting a client to her.

"If someone came from CARA, you knew the educational documents would check out, you knew the references would check out," said Portner.

CARA clients often come to the program with personal and work histories that make companies shy away from hiring them. Some have criminal convictions—although anyone with a history of violent or sex crimes is not eligible—gaps in their employment histories and limited education. Some have a history of substance abuse, although to participate, they must be in recovery and pass a drug test when they start and random drug tests throughout the programs.

Noaiman didn't have those kinds of issues when she came to CARA, Bartlett said. With her history end education, she is not the agency's typical client, even if she is one of its happiest.

"When you work here, you feel like you're doing something important," she said.

This piece was originally printed in The Catholic New World, reproduced here with permission

By Michelle Martin
Staff Writer