Kay Bennett understands hopelessness. As director of the Baptist
Friendship House in New Orleans, she has seen plenty of it firsthand.
She has seen it in the homeless women who live day-to-day,
in the abandoned mothers struggling to care for children, in the desperate women
who do not have the skills needed to find a job, in the frantic woman who just
needs a pair of shoes she can wear to a job she finally has found.
Kay Bennett understands hopelessness. As director of the Baptist
Friendship House in New Orleans, she has seen plenty of it firsthand.
She has seen it in the homeless women who live day-to-day,
in the abandoned mothers struggling to care for children, in the desperate women
who do not have the skills needed to find a job, in the frantic woman who just
needs a pair of shoes she can wear to a job she finally has found.
Yes, Kay Bennett understands hopelessness.
However, because of that, she also knows hope when she sees
it – and these days, she sees it in the Christian Womens Job Corp
program sponsored by the Southern Baptist Womans Missionary Union.
“This is one of the best programs Womans Missionary
Union has ever done,” Bennett says. “Churches and church planting
are great. But there are people who will never go in a church. … And sometimes,
we forget that when we walk out of our churches, were entering the missions
field.
“But Christian Womens Job Corps doesnt forget
that.”
Indeed, the program is built on remembering that, on reaching
out to women caught in the cycle of poverty and working to meet their physical,
emotional and spiritual needs and help them become self-sufficient.
Practically, the program exists to equip needy women with life
and job skills that will allow them to escape the cycle of poverty and subsequently
break it for their children.
Philosophically, the program focuses on one simple goal –
giving women hope.
“This is not just the best thing Womans Missionary
Union has come up with it, its the best thing Southern Baptist have ever
come up with,” emphasizes Elizabeth Ford, a national Christian Womens
Job Corps trainer and one of the first site coordinators involved with the program.
“Its a vision from God. Its bigger than Southern
Baptists or Womans Missionary Union. … Most of the people were
helping dont have another adult they can trust. Theyve never known
unconditional love and unconditional forgiveness.
“Were offering them hope.”
Christian Womans Job Corps has been offering such hope
for five years this spring. The effort began as a pilot in South Carolina –
where Ford led the way – and has grown to gain national recognition. It
has three sites in Louisiana, including the Baptist Friendship House effort
launched in 2000.
The project now is going international and into womens
prisons. Men are showing interest in the program as well – and it also
is targeting the world of adult entertainment, primarily prostitutes and exotic
dancers.
The message is always one of help and hope.
Both comes in different forms.
For instance, Bennett has been involved in the job corps program
since 2000 at Baptist Friendship House.
She tells of a woman who was incarcerated at the same time
as her husband. Baptist women ministered to the couples children during
that time. And when the woman was released from prison, Christian Womens
Job Corps helped her get a job and go to school to get computer training.
She also tells of helping 18-year-olds and even a 62-year-old
woman receive their GED diplomas.
And she tells of the 50-year-old woman with the 9-month-old
child who was struggling to make it. The woman found a job but showed up at
the Friendship House to ask for a pair of shoes to wear to work.
“She just needed a pair of shoes, thats all,”
Bennett notes.
But the woman returns to the Friendship House each week now
for Bible study.
“In many ways, we fill in the gaps,” Bennett explains.
“But I dont want to put Band-Aids on problems. I want to help these
women get on their feet. … And I like ministering to the whole person –
the physical, the mental, the spiritual, the intellectual, the emotional, all
of it.”
The holistic approach is one of the things that sets the Christian
Womens Job Corps apart, Ford explains.
“Others are doing parts of what we do,” she acknowledges.
“But what sets us apart is the Bible study and the mentoring.”
Each woman who participates in the program must be involved
in Bible study and is encouraged throughout the effort to develop a relationship
with Jesus Christ.
In addition, each participant is assigned a mentor, who works
with the individual throughout the training program and for at least a year
afterward. The overall purpose of the mentor is to provide support and encouragement.
That translates to all sorts of things, including sharing in prayer and providing
practical needs at times, such as transportation.
Bennett acknowledges that convincing women that someone else
really cares for them and is willing to help them in such a way can take time.
Indeed, some women cannot deal with it and run away, she notes.
Sometimes, they return to try again. Sometimes, it takes several
times before they can trust the care they are receiving.
And sometimes, they make it through the program, only to fall
prey once more to the lure of substance abuse and life on the streets of New
Orleans, Bennett acknowledges.
“And thats like theyve pulled your heart out
and stomped on it, …” she admits. “But you never give up on someone.
… And how do you define success anyway?
“If I have a woman come through here, … and shes
only here a week, thats a success. Thats a week she was not out
there on the streets.”
Bennett is working to help more and more women get off those
streets – permanently. The Friendship House sits on the edge of the New
Orleans French Quarter, just inside an area known as Fauborg Marigny.
The center currently is meeting code requirements to provide
transitional housing to women. Hopefully, final approval is just a few months
away, Bennett says. Then, the center can begin offering on-site Christian Womens
Job Corps classes and training.
The goal is to help women develop all the skills they need
– self-esteem, assertiveness, computer use, laundry, cooking, financial
planning, job training, spiritual development.
As she works to provide such training, Bennett works with area
churches and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary for support and mentors.
In turn, she seeks to get women participating in training programs involved
in churches.
Bennett and others involved with Christian Womens Job
Corps acknowledge it is not an easy project to undertake.
For instance, Bennett faces the challenge of dealing with substance
abuse, various nationalities and finding jobs for participating women in a tight
employment market.
In addition, finding mentors is not easy, and meeting practical
needs of women takes more money and resources than the Baptist center sometimes
has on its own.
Indeed, it takes a world of commitment to launch a Christian
Womens Job Corps site, says Pam Lockwood, associate director of womens
missions and ministry for the Louisiana Baptist Convention. All in all, one
can expect it to take 18-24 months to get a site up and running, she says.
So, why endure the intensive training and hard work and sure-to-come
disappointments?
Ask someone involved in Christian Womens Job Corps, and
the likely answer will refer to Matthew 25 at some point, to the reminder that
when one ministers to the least of persons, they surely are ministering to Jesus
himself.
Ask Bennett, and she also speaks of not giving up on others.
“Jesus never gave up on us, so, …” she begins and pauses.
“Its letting Jesus work through you, …” she
continues in a moment. “And if you reach one person, its worth it.
Its having the fulfillment of knowing youve helped at least one.”
Ask Lockwood, and she speaks of seeing the cycle of poverty
broken in the lives of others, of reaching out to others however one can, such
as the couple that simply gave birthday parties for the children of women in
the job corps program. Most of the children never had had a birthday party.
“Its making a difference,” Lockwood says. “Thats
what its all about really. … But its ongoing. Its not something
I do today and forget about tomorrow.”
Ask Ford, and she speaks of potential, of being involved in
something that literally could change not only the future of involved women
but of the nation as well.
“I really believe this is Gods vision to change
America like its never been changed before,” Ford says. “Think
about how big God is. Thats how big Christian Womens Job Corps can
be. … Its as big as he is. …
“So, I dont know how big itll grow. I really dont know.
But I know Gods not finished yet.”