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employment

London: Job-search service ‘Making it Work’

Published: 14th Nov 2014
MAKING it Work is a service which runs at the London Jesus Centre on Thursday mornings to help people find work. Alison, who runs the service, is a qualified adviser and has over 20 years’ experience of helping people to find work. She can help with CV writing, job-search, interview skills and general advice and guidance. People who have used the service have said:

“It was professional help, the advice was useful in conversations with recruitment agencies” and “I got help to write my CV and learn how to attach it to emails, Alison helped me to choose the right sort of work and showed me how to get information about jobs from the internet, I’m so glad to have found a job now”.

Book an...
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Coventry: Space To Relax

Jeremy Blackstock lost everything when his job fell through. Through the Jesus Centre he found accommodation and friendship. He tells his story.
Published: 18th Jun 2014
Jeremy BlackstockI HAD been working for four years at a large hotel helping in the kitchen and thought things were going great.

Then the Head Chef, who was my friend and got me the job in the first place, went on holiday for four weeks. While he was away, I didn’t get on with one of the Porters who was looking out for anything I did wrong. One day I had gone into the kitchen when it was not my shift as it was a live-in job.

He reported me and I was given four weeks’ notice, which obviously meant I lost my accommodation as well as my job. I also couldn’t get benefits for three months.

I went to live with friends and started sofa surfing. During this time I came to the Jesus Centre for something to...
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Two Projects Turning Around Unemployment

Exploring how two projects, both motivated by a passion to follow Jesus’ example to reach out to the poor and marginalised, are making a marked impact.
Published: 17th Jun 2013
WE HAVE become accustomed to bad news: faltering banks, a double-dip recession, once-firmly established businesses folding up, large scale redundancies in the public sector and the resultant increase in unemployment, house repossessions, homelessness and child poverty. And that doesn’t include the unrecorded psychological damage inflicted by the loss of jobs and the uncertainty, even hopelessness, it brings both to individuals and family life. Political parties wrangle about new benefits introduced and many accuse the government of letting down the poor.

“Work doesn’t seem to exist anymore,” said Salome, 21, one of a million unemployed young people aged 16-24. Salome left college at 18 and has been...
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Coventry: Seven Stories of Forgotten People

Julia Faire puts us in the shoes of seven visitors to the Coventry Jesus Centre.
Published: 29th Apr 2013
THESE ARE hard times for the poor. Not many would argue with that. UK Government austerity measures have meant that increasing numbers of people are unable to make ends meet. Food banks are busier than ever (according to an article in the Guardian, three open every week) and recent headlines reveal that child poverty is again on the increase. Over 6 million people are unemployed or underemployed and benefits and the minimum wage rates are falling well behind that of inflation. Key charities are struggling financially, leaving some of our most vulnerable citizens badly in need of support.

At Coventry Jesus Centre ‘The Bridge’ drop-in is open five mornings a week: free breakfasts, showers and clothes are provided and...
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Coventry: Speaking out

Justice is what Coventry Jesus Centre support worker Val Hook longs for
Published: 22nd Jan 2006
WHEN Val Hook saw the Support Worker post advertised, she thought, 'yes!' She had been working in the centre's café but wanted to do something more specific to help people.

Now she assists clients with applications for housing and other benefits, arranges crisis loans or accommodation, rings agencies to make appointments, and reads and writes letters for them if needed.

"People feel that agencies don't care," says Val. "Support work is about helping them to have confidence. So we ring to make the appointment, but the client has to go themselves."

In one case, Val found a client a flat but he then went into prison. He wanted the tenancy kept open as he had been homeless for...
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