Church Programs Aid the Newly Unemployed

RALEIGH, N.C. (RNS)-- After he was laid off from his job in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park, Nick Verna of Apex spent his days at home on the Internet applying for various jobs. But he soon found a better place to hunt down job tips and network with the right people: his church.

Each Tuesday morning, Verna meets with church members who share his predicament. They've all been laid off -- mostly from high-tech jobs -- and are eager to share ideas. They have helped each other update resumes, practice interview skills and polish professional images, all while offering each other emotional and spiritual support.

"It seemed logical," said Verna, a member of St. Michael Catholic Church in Cary, N.C. "Eighty percent of all jobs now are through networking. If we can network through our own church, there are a wealth of people we can tap."

As companies such as Alcatel, Cisco Systems and Nortel downsize, and as the economy drifts closer to a recession, churches are finding that more of their members are out of work. In North Carolina's Triangle region, about 22,100 people were out of work in August. Increasingly, churches are responding to their plight. Some, like St. Michael, have set up weekly support groups. Others have offered job training seminars, or a room equipped with a phone and high-speed Internet connection.

Since so many of those laid off in the Triangle have been white-collar professionals, the church support groups tend to be made up of people with similar career paths. These groups consist of self-motivated suburbanites. They typically include at least one or two with group leadership experience. And invariably they organize a Listserv, a commercial electronic mailing list management system, to exchange ideas.

St. Michael, a suburban parish of about 5,000 families, has been particularly hard-hit. Although church officials don't know how many people are out of work, they estimate it's in the hundreds. About 90 of those people have used the Internet Listserv. Others have participated in its evening job seminar series or Tuesday morning support group.

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