“Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man To Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime.”
As members of our Morgantown community, we are excited about the Jobs for Life Program at Christian Help, which is dedicated to helping people improve their position in life by offering free job training involving career assessments, resume writing, mock interviewing, and character building.
Jobs for Life (JfL) in Morgantown, West Virginia
Interesting Facts About Jobs for Life
Jobs For Life (JfL)is a national non-profit organization that has partnered with our local Christian Help to offer a unique solution to poverty and joblessness in our communities.
The JfL class consists of 16 sessions and teaches timeless biblical principles concerning work and the ways those principles are applied in the marketplace.
Jobs for Life is a Christian job training program lasting eight weeks long. Classes are held twice a year, once in the Fall and once in the Spring. They usually have ten to fifteen students enrolled in the program.
Students can range from the age of eighteen to over sixty-five years of age and are at all different educational levels.
Classes start promptly at 5:30 pm and finish promptly at 7:30 pm, on Monday and Thursday evenings. Each student is provided a mentor, which we refer to as a Champion.
They also provide food at 5 pm for students and volunteers.
Enrollment and participation are free, at no cost, for participants. Free transportation and childcare can be arranged if needed.
Call 304.296.0221
The goal of this program is to not only help our local people find jobs but also to help them succeed and keep those jobs.
Learn more about this upcoming class and Christian Help’s other programs here.
Video Transcript:
[Narrator] A job is essential to not only live but to give your life meaning. One with dignity and purpose. Unemployment can happen at any time to anyone and at any stage of life.
At Christian Help in Morgantown, we believe it is our calling to help those in need, to guide, empower, and clarify their life purpose.
[JfL Director] for Life is a faith-based eight-week program. It teaches both life skills and job search skills.
[Mentor 1] The key is not just to find a job but it’s how they keep a job. They brought Christ into the program as a way, a good foundation of helping people find their faith, find a way to help them, and support them through the process.
[JfL Director] Everybody is welcome to sign up and it is a free program.
[Mentor 1] We’ve got international students, students that have disabilities, we have students that are here because the other option is jail. We’ve got students who have had hard luck.
Most of the students there have some sort of roadblock, what’s holding them back? We spend time trying to help them unpack that.
[Mentor 2] And that really says to the person that you’re looking at me, not just where I’ve been, and what my limitations are but what my opportunities are for the future.
[Student 1] I was afraid to speak in front of many people, then they told us everybody has this problem but you have to prepare, practice, keep practicing, and when you know what you’re talking about, you become more confident.
[Mentor 1] I guess the term could be metamorphosis. He got to the point where he was comfortable.
[Student 1] Jobs for Life has changed my life in many different ways. I met many nice people here; I know life is not just about ourselves.
[Mentor 2] Tina had an accident when she was in high school, a car accident that left her with some disabilities and physical and mental challenges that kept her a little bit slower.
[Student 2] I needed a job but, you know, I, in my mind, couldn’t figure out how I was gonna get one. Because of my disability. The Jobs for Life program gave me more confidence and it helped me a lot.
[Mentor 2] Everybody that I’ve spoken with over the five years who has been a mentor or teacher, just loves it. It’s tough to define life changing but yep, you can’t help but be changed.
[JfL Director] Because we see what happens and where they’ve been and where they’re going and it’s very wonderful and significant.
[[Mentor 1] Story after story after story of students who’ve had lives changed, that’s the most reward for me.
[Mentor 2] life-changing for the student and the mentor. By Tina being in the Jobs for Life program she’s able to maintain and retain a job at Maple as an activities assistant, not just for one year, two years, but for three years.
[Student 1] We learn together, we keep improving ourselves, we grow together.
[Mentor 2] It’s like raising somebody to be the best they possibly could be. And it’s just, it’s like “Yeah, look at her!”
[Student 2] I’m living more, I’m doing stuff for myself.
[Student 1] I want to do well, like to make people who have helped me think their time and effort were worth it.
[Mentor 2] I want to encourage more people to be a part of people’s lives so that they can have a better life because the decisions that they had to make earlier in their life doesn’t have to be the same thing we make today and doesn’t have to predict our future, we can make a change in people’s lives now.
[Narrator] If you want to help be the change in our community and someone’s life, please consider joining our program, Jobs for Life.
[JfL Director] You just might find a new purpose.
Jeffery Robinette was admitted to practice law in 1991 and is licensed in all levels of state and federal trial courts in West Virginia. Mr. Robinette is also licensed in all state and federal appeals courts in West Virginia and the United States Supreme Court. As a National Board Certified Trial Attorney who has handled hundreds of motor vehicle, injury, and construction defect claims and a leading author on insurance claims settlement issues and difficulties in West Virginia, Jeff Robinette is uniquely qualified to represent your best interest.