The Saving Place Jobs
The Saving Place Jobs is actually a program within a program. It is a way that we use The Saving Place Store to incorporate multiple layers of helping the non-profit generate some of it’s own income while teaching and training clients that we are working with in the mission program.
For example: When we find a person living under a bridge or in a shelter, they may be best served in a nursing home, in a mentally challenged assisted living facility or even in a half way house for veterans. But sometimes they may be an ex-construction worker, an ex-restaurant owner or anything else. They may have been un-employed for twenty years, two years or three days. Possibly the only reason that they have lived like that for the past, let’s say three years is because of a bad addiction to some controlled substance. We take them to church, they get saved, now the addiction is gone but they still have laid around and wandered around for the last three years. Things change rapidly in the work force today. They have grown lazy and unappreciative of authority. But they are so glad to be saved and changed and they want to get their life back but they also want to help the ministry. But very few employers are going to hire a man and give him a decent wage when his only reference is from three years ago and he currently lives in a shelter. So we take them to The Saving Place. They get what is called a volunteer/temporary position. They sweep the floor and take out the trash, they learn to have a boss and be accountable again. They “punch the clock” and get breaks. The whole time they are building physical strength, self respect and a general ability to re-enter the work force. Plus, they are spending the days around the saints instead of the slums. It gives them a chance to get spiritual strength and ask questions. On top of all of this, they are helping generate money for the mission group to win even more just like themselves.
After a few weeks or a few months then we help them get a job and we are their primary reference and they are eventually worked right back into the work force. They have gained their livelihood back, one more is taken off of the roles that the government has to find a way to provide for and the church adds a soul.
Glory!