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Old June 30, 2008, 05:49 PM
GordonJ's Avatar
GordonJ GordonJ is offline
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Default Some thoughts on Non Profits, and Publicly funded "Job Services".

karunnt mentioned this: (emphasis mine)

In Vancouver, Canada (The job market is ok here.) a lot of these services are offered by the government, community centers, employment center etc. for free. I think that may also be true in the US.

There is an extensive small business center that the the same thing for people trying to start a new business (ie. incorporation, business plan advice etc.)

Also a lot of those courses (MS Excel) can be taken at a community college given by the same instructors that you intend to hire.

Thanks karunnt. This is my take, and my opinion, and the research our team has done bears this out.

In Ohio we have "state of the art" JOB CENTERS. They are called ONE STOPS. There is one about two miles from here on Tallmadge Ave. in Akron's North Hill section of town.

It houses FEDS, State and County workers all in the "JOB" arena. It is called the Job Center. It is a fantastic place to go IF:

You are on welfare and being forced to participate in a welfare to work program.

You are a recenlty released from prison "offender". The ex-offender program is top notch (but they still can't get you a job).

You are coming out of rehab, and your addiction is under control, they have special counselors to help you out.

OR if you are an 8 dollar an hour fast food employee who has been fired, they can probably hook you up with another 8 dollar an hour job only an hour's bus ride from your home.

It is NOT such a great place if:

You are a veteran, especially one just returning from Afghanistan or Iraq. The OLD veteran's reps have retired and been replaced with a couple of young women who are not veterans, but they are "qualified" to deal with you.

NOT so good if you have a college education and have been downsized or displaced by outsourcing.

Terrible place to go if you have an MBA or if you had a job that made you 40,000 a year of more. They have absolutely NOTHING there for you (except maybe some contempt).

This is one of the BETTER publicly funded job centers in the country. And bottom line: IT SUCKS.

See, these places are run by a bunch of public (and/or private) employees that are difficult if not impossible to get rid of, and they know it. They are secure in their jobs, even if they don't do them. There is attitude to spare. They are, as a group, a bunch of heartless, selfish and uncaring SOBs you'll ever find. And the administrators are even worse.

They do have ONE major concern and that is to KEEP THIER JOBS, especially if it is any way shape or form is funded by a GRANT. Which leads me into the private NON PROFITS.

Over at the ONE STOP JOB CENTER, you will also find agencies like GOODWILL. They are there because they have rec'd GRANTS for their workforce placement program. The WIA program replaced the old JTPA (which I worked under and with 15 years of social services employment under my belt, I do have a pretty decent idea how they operate).

When you think of Goodwill, you think of people helping people. HA! That may be true in their thrift shops and in the help they offer to the community, but NOT so true when it comes to their GRANT money from the FEDS for the workforce.

They are like all the other NON profits. They begin with good intentions, and as a boutique agency, a new non profit often does fantastic work. Then they get hooked on the drug...

The drug that destroys the good intentions of NON profits is...

GRANT MONEY.

Once they get it, their focus changes. NOW it is about getting the grant again and more of it. It becomes about filling out the right paperwork, and do it correctly, and less and less about actually serving the needs of the people the grant is intended to help.

I've seen it happen over and over and over again. GREAT work started by a small group, often with ONE driving force, with the idea of helping people...and in the beginning they are fantastic.

Then, the thinking goes: IF I could get more money, some GRANT money, then I could help more people.

And there they go down the toilet. Case managers of any type of grant funded agency will tell you about the mountains of paperwork they have to fill out and how much time is spent working on keeping the grant that has been taken away from the clients. I've worked for many wonderful agencies that have gotten hooked on the drug, and today, they are nothing but scams and shell games.

OK, There are some good programs, like The Service Corps of Retired Executives. I called and scheduled an appointment, the first one was 6 weeks off. I showed up and was given paper work to bring back in 3 weeks. I brought back the paperwork and they scheduled me to see a counselor in 5 weeks. I met the counselor, he reviewed my paperwork and referred me to a banker, where I could get a loan for the business IF I put up the collateral. The banker suggested I apply for a SBA loan. Called SBA, set up appointment...repeat the above paragraph.

SURE, there are Gov't programs. Community Programs. FREE programs. Non profit programs. But I tell you this quite sincerely, I'd rather deal with a CAPITALIST (a money grubbing business person) every day of the week before I would want to get dirty with the do gooder NOT for profit agencies.

That is a broad stroke assessment. OF course there are agencies that do great work and people in all agencies that do care. BUT, they are as rare as hen's teeth.

As regarding the Job Center. We don't want to work with the people who are already being served by these Gov't and NON profit agencies, they are well represented (even if they don't get the help they seek).

NO, we're targeting the disappearing middle class of America who are over qualified, over educated and have not been imprisoned, or in rehab or on the most wanted list.

We see that a large group of people have no place to go to get REAL and meaningful services to assist with JOB seeking and/or their desire to start their own business.

We may be wrong, but we see a need for our version of training and LEARNING. Yes, the focus will be on Jobs/Biz-Op...but we'll also have the Leisure/Hobby division also where ON DEMAND personal training will be just as big as the "MONEY" side of the Center.

Gordon J. Alexander

PS. Yes, I can take MS Excel down at Akron U. Or at New Horizons. They have classes scheduled every couple of months...try to get your community college or local computer training center to give you the class ON YOUR SCHEDULE and at an affordable price. There is no good reason a person should have to pay more than 89 dollars for a one day class in Excel. Check out your local providers, see what I mean about getting scheduled and the cost.

Last edited by GordonJ : June 30, 2008 at 06:03 PM.
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