CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – If you think Republicans are cold and heartless and don’t care about the downtrodden, I’d like to tell you about the Joseph Project. It tries to find jobs for people who are just out of jail.
The program was started in Milwaukee, with the backing of Senator Ron Johnson. The Senator noticed that there were many good-paying jobs in the Milwaukee suburbs. The challenge for the unemployed was getting there. Pastor Jerome Smith’s church hosted the project and used its church vans to drive people to and from their jobs.
The program is still going in Milwaukee, and is now in Green Bay and Wausau. Congressman Tom Tiffany sends one of his staffers to each Joseph Project meeting in Wausau. She helps to run the program.
I volunteered to help at the first meeting in Wausau for the fall. 25 people, some just out jail, others who’ve had jobs, lost them, and are ready to try again took part. And there are jobs waiting for them. Several manufacturers can’t find enough people. Their jobs pay $20 to $25 an hour. That’s a family-supporting wage of $45,000 a year. Later this fall I will be a volunteer driver to help some of these people get to and from work.
I can tell right away that not everyone who is in the program will stick with it. Actually, only about 25% are still employed after three months. Addictions don’t go away overnight. Some of these new workers are surrounded by toxic people. Change is not easy, and those old ways are hard to leave behind.
So only one-out-of-four will stay employed long term. Those aren’t particularly good odds. So why should I volunteer my time? Part is self-interest; a person who has a job is less likely to return to crime, or to have kids in poverty, or to be a strain on social services in town. If they can’t support themselves, my tax dollars are drained.
There is another reason. Jesus Christ tells me to. Jesus said, “I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. And they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you do for one of the least of these, you do for me.’
I hope, wherever you are in your life, that you do something, anything, to lift someone else up.
Chris Conley
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