March 9, 2007
POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE
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Proud JTP graduate and valedictorian, Eleanor McDonald |
Friends and loved ones filled the pews of a church on the Lower East Side last Friday to watch ten hard-working men and women take part in a Housing Works’ Second Life Job Training Program (JTP) graduation. Six clients received certificates for successfully completing the 9- to 12-month program and entering the workforce. Four other graduates celebrated taking the next step toward employment by moving into the second and final phase of their job training.
For Eleanor McDonald, 51, the ceremony’s valedictorian, the day was especially sweet. She entered JTP last May after 30 turbulent years of prostitution, drug addiction, and incarceration. “I was in and out of jail a lot,” she says. “The courts never offered any kind of help, so I would go back to smoking crack and selling myself. I lost my self-esteem. But the job training program opened so many doors for me. It gave me back the life I had before I started doing drugs. It taught me I can work.”
The graduation was an intimate, moving affair. The stirring anthem, “Pomp and Circumstance” played as the graduates filed into the church. The six who completed the JTP wore blue caps and gowns. Instructors and program directors then presented JTP certificates and reminisced about time spent with each graduate. Charles King, Housing Works president and CEO, delivered an inspirational speech that urged graduates to work toward creating change in the world at large and in their own communities. Blondaya Montague treated the audience with a soulful rendition of Melba Moore’s “The Other Side of the Rainbow.”
Real Skills for the Real World
JTP enrolls around 60 clients each year and is New York State’s first and most successful job training program for men and women living with HIV and AIDS. Participants learn the skills vital to entering or re-entering the workforce.
Second Life is split into two levels. The three-month “pre-vocational” program, which had four graduates last week, assists clients with adapting to an eight-hour work week and teaches time-management, communication skills, and working with others. The “vocational” program, which had six graduates, provides clients with education and on-the-job experience by employing them at a Housing Works’ thrift shop, book store, or catering business. Upon completing the training program, all of the clients are hired by Housing Works on a full-time basis with health insurance and other benefits.
“This is not a six- to eight-week program where you are taught to make copies and write a resume. We teach clients real skills so they can survive in the world of employment,” says Jennifer Steele, JTP’s coordinator and outreach specialist. The fact that Housing Works hires its graduates eases the transition into the workplace. “One of the biggest fears for people with HIV is telling their employer they’re positive. Because much of our staff is positive, those fears are eliminated,” Steele says.
Working Woman
McDonald, who began working as a sales associate at the Housing Works Thrift Shop on 23rd street in Manhattan last August, will continue to work at the store full time. However, she plans to attend night classes to study human resources and possibly get a job in the field. She also wants to help women who have been victims of domestic violence.
“I’ll be making good money for the first time in 25 to 30 years,” she says with a joy-filled smile and a hint of tears in her eyes. “There isn’t a prostitute out there making what I’m making. I am just so happy with my life right now.”