Job program gets results in a hurry
Jacques Lake was overeducated and under experienced - two major roadblocks, he said, that kept him from breaking into a new career in today's job market. "I've basically been a lifetime learner," said Lake who has a bachelor's degree and a bevy of military training and educational certificates. But after more than 30 years of employment, including 13 years serving in the U.S. Army, Lake found himself out of a job and stunned that he couldn't easily find another one.
"There I was sitting out there unemployed for a year," said the former senior military instructor. So he evoked his vocational rehabilitation veteran benefit, which paid for him to go back to school, where he earned another degree. "I graduated with honors, but I still couldn't get a job." Not until he found out about the "28 Days to Employment" system, an initiative offered through Milwaukee Careers Cooperative through a partnership with PeoplePower, LLC. The new initiative, said John Possell, the cooperatives fiscal director, who's agency consults with C. J. Brown III, developer of the "28 Days to Employment" system, "it's been very effective."
Brown a Vietnam veteran and a retired corporate executive, said he created the program after finding himself back in the job market. While unable to find work, he became homeless. It was there, he said, that very few programs helping the homeless, who are often military veterans or disabled, find employment.
The "28 Days to Employment" system has been operating for six years and has led hundreds of people into jobs. It takes participants through a step by step process to realize their talents, abilities and skills.
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL
Faces of Hope - Felica Thomas-Lynn
