Review of “Why Don’t They Just Get a Job? One Couple’s Mission to End Poverty in Their Community,” by Liane Phillips and Echo Montgomery Garrett, 2010. Highlands, TX: aha process. Cloth, 253 pages.
I am personally very interested in this book and this story—I have joked that if I win the lottery, one of the projects I plan to invest in is a Christian-based employment agency specifically for persons who have had difficulties and challenges in the past—but who now want to work.
Often there can be events and decisions in a person’s past that can preclude the candidate from becoming employed. This book is a great start for designing an intervention that can actually help people with “shaky” job histories or other obstacles secure—and maintain—employment.
This the story of Liane and Dave Phillips, two suburban professionals who took on a big Cincinnati problem once they retired, namely helping the unemployed. The couple did this by showing the job seekers how to hone their skills, prepare for interviews, get a job, and work hard to keep it.
They had both enjoyed fine careers and they had raised a family. Lucky that they had firm retirement income to rely on, they embarked on this very interesting journey, having sought guidance from God about what they should do next in their lives.
Dave and Liane Phillips wanted to give back to the community, and they clearly did so by taking on the work of helping job seekers get free from government support when possible, saving a great deal of money to taxpayers, and helping businesses save huge amounts of money because of the great turnover in jobs due to typical attrition. The book is about the history of their work with individuals in their city.
The story focuses mainly on the process of forming an entity, learning more about the needs of the unemployed in the city, and then through trial and error finding ways to prepare the job seekers to not only get a job but also to keep it. This emphasis on job retention shows a great difference in goals…
It is important to note that many of the other agencies and offices charged with helping people to get jobs do not include follow-up services, mentoring, counseling, conversations held with the job coach and the boss present, the requirements that the newly employed person call the job coach before quitting, or other rules or components essential for some people newly on the job.
Job retention is hugely important in the model. This difference sets the model created by the Phillips apart from the myriad of employment agencies and placement offices.
Because of a variety of issues, many people have great difficulty holding onto a job once they have gotten it. Some have legal issues from the past, others have ego problems, and still others have not learned enough about the world of work. Depending on where they have come from, many adults have not learned much about that “world” and remember this does not mean they did not want to!
The story focuses also on the journeys taken by job applicants to become more successful in their lives, support themselves, and care for their families. The authors include examples of several individuals who are served in the process and how they struggle but succeed with the movements toward self-sufficiency. There are many successes indeed…
The Phillips are to be congratulated for the fine work they have done and the many, many people they have helped. The model is an interesting one, and they have shown a much higher success rate in job gaining and job retention than the federal programs have shown.
One thing I do not like about the book is that the Phillips seemed to avoid serving some people who they somehow considered more problematic cases, such as people facing bigger difficulties of depression or other forms of mental illness, those dealing with major challenges because of the community they come from, and those who were responsible for “drama” on the job or to whom drama seemed to gravitate.
In making some choices about which individuals they choose to serve, the couple sends some unattractive messages. Although they do at some point in their process figure out the importance of having actual counselors on board, they still seem to avoid certain types of job seekers.
However, I recommend this book and would like to know more about this model because of the strong emphasis on job retention strategies. I do not agree with the way they attempt to serve mainly easier-to-serve job seekers at the core of their work…
However, it is an intriguing story and overall a highly successful model that could be adapted in other cities.
It would be very interesting to see some of the strategies the Phillips use applied to other cities and populations, maybe on a smaller or neighborhood scale to start—ranging from Chicago to Rockford, and from Madison to Joliet. What do the unemployed in these four cities share? How do they differ in terms of skills, opportunities, and aspirations? Are some of the Phillips’ plans already being used in these locations? What would it take to start up a small agency to adapt the model elsewhere and how much would it cost annually to begin?
These are just some of the questions I think of right away as I ponder how more people can find and retain a job.
I recommend this book and hope it will find its way into the hands of some people who can use it to make a difference. I am telling some of my friends in fundraising about the book. I am also going to let some of my buddies in nonprofit organizations know about it.