Faith groups offer help for job-loss trauma
OAKVILLE, ON—As Ontario workers continue to face an uncertain economic future, faith groups are looking at how to help people through the challenges. Ontario lost 17,000 jobs in December and more than 171,000 jobs since the end of 2008, accounting for more than half of the entire national employment decline, according to Statistics Canada.
Richard Innes is an organizer for Chartwell In Transition Network. Operated out of Chartwell Baptist Church, the network helps those dealing with career transitions, ranging from termination to career unhappiness. About 30 people come to the monthly meetings run by people who have experienced job loss themselves.
Innes says most people who attend are between the ages of 40 and 60 with a good employment history and "a lot of skills," but who have lost their jobs due to downsizing.
Innes says they help people work through questions such as: "What are you passionate about? What are you good at? Where will somebody pay you to do what you do? Is there anywhere where someone will pay you to take advantage of your passion and take advantage of your skills?
"Often it can be an opportunity for evaluation and transitioning into something more rewarding," he says. The group also helps people get through the emotional challenges of job loss.
"It can be devastating," Innes says. "In our experience, men's self-worth is driven by their work. Even when it's a case where the company downsized or moved operations and the job loss is no fault of their own, it can still be a major blow."
It is also important that those going through job loss get connected to a "supportive spiritual community" says Andrea Groenewald, a family therapist with Journey Counseling located at Lakeside Church in Guelph.
"Unemployment brings financial stress to the family system," Groenewald says. "What that normally does is intensify any other stress that is going on in the family already. Other relational stress goes up a few notches.
"We're seeing a lot of people needing food and financial help who have worked all their lives and who want to work but find themselves unemployed and in financial difficulty. I think what the church can do is come along families and support them—with practical and emotional support—to get them through these difficult times."
Innes agrees. "Having been there myself, I think job loss provides an opportunity to look at where our life intersects with our faith.
"It's not just about learning job searching skills, like how to interview well, how to write a resumé and how to network. It's also about having the opportunity to evaluate your life and hear what God is saying to you through your job loss.
"God cares about your job search. But He also cares about you and your relationship with Him. Often your connection to your spiritual life can help prepare you more for the ups and downs of job searching, more than job search skills training."
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