St. Paul's group helps job-seekers keep the faith

Posted: July 2, 2010

Delafield resident Gail Keniski was a key account manager with L'Oreal for 30 years before her position was eliminated in December.

She's been searching for a job in consumer product sales ever since, but despite her experience and skills, rarely hears back when she sends in her resume.

"It's been slow," said Keniski, 57. "It's hard. It's difficult. Some days are good, some days are bad."

Though her home office sits quiet these days, Keniski, and nearly a dozen others like her, go to work every Monday morning.

For almost a year, unemployed and underemployed professionals and skilled laborers from Genesee Depot's St. Paul Parish, neighboring parishes and others have gathered in St. Paul's family room for spiritual, emotional and job-searching support at 9 a.m. every Monday.

The idea, Pastoral Associate Len Grassmann explained, is to help people who have been laid off realize others are in the same boat and God is on their side.

"The mission of the group is to provide networking, motivation, education, emotional and spiritual support," said Sonia Halverson of St. Paul's human concerns committee.

Every meeting starts and ends with a prayer; the group regularly invites speakers in and always tries to provide time for individuals to share, said Halverson.

Roger Varner, the group's facilitator, said the meeting is scheduled first thing in the week intentionally.

"This forces people to get going on the task at hand," said Varner. "Their full-time job is finding a job."

The St. Paul Employment Support Group works through the initial shock of job loss and adjustment to not going to work every day and strives to get people to where they feel good about themselves and project a degree of self-confidence and enthusiasm, Grassmann said.

"It's a healthy process and a healthy program," said Grassmann.

For Keniski, the past months have been a thought-provoking time of personal growth, character-building and patience.

"As much as it's devastating, it's also a time of exploration and thought," said Keniski.

Support group volunteer Denice Ryan Martin, a licensed social worker, said members frequently talk about the roller coaster of feelings.

Martin said she tries to provide a balance of emotional support and practical job-seeking advice for members.

Addressing community needs

The support group began last August when Grassmann and Halverson felt the human concerns ministry at the parish needed to do something to address the mass layoffs in the community, Halverson said. Grassmann visited other communities' support groups to gain a greater understanding of how they were meeting the needs of the unemployed, and they took the knowledge they had acquired from other groups and combined them with the needs and demographics of their parish, she said.

The group is made up of mostly "gray-haired guys," said Varner, noting that was the majority of workers laid off in this recession. Over the course of the year, about 30 people, including women, have joined the group. About seven members have secured jobs in their field of choice, Varner said.

It's been about a year-and-a-half since Doug Falkenburg's employer, a construction builder, closed its doors.

"I've always had a good work ethic and felt very satisfied coming home after a long day of work," said Falkenburg, of Dousman.

Falkenburg, 52, has been in regular attendance at St. Paul's support group.

He's been keeping busy through the months roofing, landscaping, rototilling and volunteering at a garden plot to grow food for the homeless and underemployed but has not found a full-time position that he's hoping will combine his construction and environmental backgrounds.

"It's been difficult," said Falkenburg. "You just have the feeling like you're supposed to make a living and support your family, and you can't find a job to do it."

Grassmann said unemployment can be just one of multiple issues for group members. On woman found out her son was very sick soon after she'd lost her job; another member lived in Eagle and incurred significant tornado damage on his home, Grassmann said.

he support group was collecting money to help him, as were parishioners, Varner said.

On a recent Monday morning, guest speaker Jerry Barbian of Crossroads Career Network told the group of about nine members sitting on couches, recliners and folding chairs that everything starts with prayer.

"God is truly great," said Barbian. "He has found more jobs than I could ever dream of for people."

Barbian said everything starts with attitude.

"It takes a whole lot less muscle to smile than to frown," Barbian said. "God created us that way."

"We're going to get down in the dumps once in a while, and we'll worry and fret, but we're going to make it," Grassmann told the group.

Barbian went on to say that group members should volunteer, practice a healthy lifestyle, plan each day, hold each other accountable and know themselves before they start on their job search. In a group where most have job experience spanning decades, Barbian also addressed age, a difficult subject for some group members.

He said they need to be proud of who they are because God created each of them with skills and talents. Barbian said companies want individuals who think young, are willing to adapt and change and aren't afraid to take risks. He said it's not about how old they are, it's about how they present themselves.

"We get hung up on chronological age," Barbian said.

While both Keniski and Falkenburg said the group has been beneficial, group volunteers hope it is short-lived.

"I feel blessed to have been a part of this group, but I believe we are all patiently waiting for the group not to be needed," Halverson said.