WorkLife

 Purpose

Work Life by the Chalmers Center provides participants with a holistic approach to work readiness to help them gain and maintain employment  - with a specific focus on the chronically poor.

 Pricing Summary (subject to change)

Startup costs for four facilitators (online training): $1,900 minus a 20% network member discount.

Cost for 10 participants (curriculum bundle): $350

 Perspective

This program is grounded in the Christian faith, and approaches poverty in the relational way laid out in the book When Helping Hurts. This course intends to empower and speak to participants in a relatable way and emphasize their capacity. It was created in a collaboration between Jobs for Life and the Chalmers Center in response to a Memphis-based employment program that wanted a job skills course focused more on inter-generational poverty.

 Structure

Work Life is a 19-session series with 2-hour classes. It is designed for groups of 5-20 people with 1-2 facilitators teaching 3 times a week for 6 weeks or twice a week for 9 weeks. This curriculum does not use videos.

 Best For

This curriculum is optimized for people who “may have experienced fruitlessness in previous efforts … which have caused unhealthy thinking, distrust of others, and general pessimism about the future. They may be stalled out in education and career so they become stuck in unhealthy patterns, such as addiction, violence, emotional poverty, job jumping, wasting time, or crumbling family.” It is also an explicitly faith-based curriculum, so Biblical allusions are common, but participants do not need to be Christians.

This could be used by a church or nonprofit of any size, though it will require a lot of human resources.

 Evidence That It Works

Work Life was created in 2015 and user reviews and outcomes data are not available for this program. However, it does have experienced ministries behind its approach and was field tested extensively before release.

 Cost and Resources

To prepare the course facilitators, online training is available for $475 per person (minimum four people). True Charity Network members have a 20% discount on the facilitator training. Learn more at our Savings for Network Members page. 

Work Life is also designed for each course participant to have 2-3 mentors or “allies” to encourage them as they learn and apply.

Work Life wants your program to connect to potential employers in the community, to directly connect participants with better employment through your program. 

A typical classroom with tables, wall space for flip charts, and space for activities is required. Audio/video equipment is not necessary. 

If you have the resources, it could also be integrated with an active job opportunity over the weeks in which the course is in session to allow students to apply what they learn throughout the course.

 How to order:

https://chalmers.org/work-life-training/

 What We Love

 Considerations

This is an intensive program which will require a lot of dedicated people to make it a success. It is doubtless worth the effort, but it may not be possible in every situation. It is also only appropriate for a Christian church or nonprofit, given the tone of the curriculum.

Links Reviewed 6/24/24