“I learned I had skills I didn’t know I could use for my resume.”
“I learned to be me and that God has a plan for my life.”
“I learned that I should be confident in myself and [learned] skills that I forgot I had in my bad choices.”
“I learned who I am again.”
“I [had forgotten] what I am able to do and what I can give to a company and what I can do for a company.”
These are several responses to the question, “What have you learned?” asked of our newest class of 10 Road to Success job workshop participants. Each time the quarterly job workshop concludes, this question is asked and each time, the responses are striking.
Most often, the participants note a strategy or tidbit of information that was particularly helpful, but the most notable thing they take with them is always the same: confidence.
These people have come from diverse backgrounds: some from drug addiction, abuse, trauma, homelessness, hunger, poverty, the list goes on and on. The pain and heartbreak of their lives and past choices had broken them. After months and sometimes years of being unable to find or hold a job, many stop believing they have anything to offer at all. It becomes a haze of disappointments and rejections, until many just stop trying altogether.
In the Road to Success job workshop, this is the most important thing to address: the belief that they are unmarketable, that they have nothing to offer to an employer, that no one would ever want to give them a chance. They are encouraged and taught how to identify their strengths and play to them – because everyone has strengths. As the lie they have believed of their lack of worth in the job market is torn down, their confidence begins to build.
Soon, men and women that have long believed they are only good for a life of pain, addiction, homelessness, and unemployment now begin to realize they can be successful. They can find and hold stable employment. They can provide for their families. They can leave their old lives behind.
And this is why we do what we do. Providing a bed and a meal is vital to survival, but if we only provide that, there is a much greater chance that they will be back at our gates soon after they leave. In order to not just survive, but thrive and move on to a self-sufficient life, it is so important for these men and women to move forward with renewed confidence, as completely transformed individuals.
Congratulations to the most recent Road to Success participants! We are eager to see where this next step in your journey takes you!
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