{"id":755,"date":"2024-08-20T11:57:28","date_gmt":"2024-08-20T11:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/?p=755"},"modified":"2024-08-26T11:59:32","modified_gmt":"2024-08-26T11:59:32","slug":"i-was-just-praying-for-help-how-a-shepherd-job-fair-made-a-lasting-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/2024\/08\/20\/i-was-just-praying-for-help-how-a-shepherd-job-fair-made-a-lasting-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I was just praying\u2019 for help\u2019: How a Shepherd job fair made a lasting difference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The young man came to Shepherd Community Center\u2019s first community resource fair on July 25 desperate to find a job and to find something to eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The man\u2019s mother died when he was only 6 years old; his father is in prison. Seemingly alone and without regular access to necessities, the man found help at Shepherd that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe has an appointment with Fathers and Family to help with his GED,\u201d Jackie Cissell, a development officer with Shepherd, said. \u201cNeighbors from various segments of our neighborhood, seniors, single parents, grandparents with little ones, and Haitian refugees were here looking for help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fair drew 109 neighbors who connected with 27 vendors. One of the highlights involved 18 neighbors who signed up with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abbycare.org\/l\/indiana\">Abby Care<\/a>, an organization that helps people providing care for family members with special needs and medical conditions receive compensation from Medicaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI am so excited about connecting one of our Project Jordan moms with Abby Care,\u201d Cindy, a Shepherd volunteer, said. \u201cShe has two children who have many physical needs that mean she is taking them to many doctor&#8217;s appointments and therapies. Abby Care will pay her $17 an hour for 15 hours a week to care for her children. This mom has been so weighed down by her children&#8217;s needs and not being able to work as a result and therefore struggling to make ends meet. God is so good to open this door for her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Similar life-changing encounters were reported on the day of the fair and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI called a young lady (the day after the fair) to inform her that her name had been pulled for the $50 drawing,\u201d Ieta, another volunteer, said. \u201cShe started crying, saying \u2018I was just praying, saying I don\u2019t know what my daughter and I are going to do. Thank you so much! This means a lot to me.\u2019 I called (a few days later) to follow up with her. She had a Zoom interview with the home health aide company that was here, and she is now employed with that company.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Shepherd, a job fair is about far more than employment. It\u2019s about neighbors finding hope. About connecting people in need with organizations that can help. About forging relationships that reap rewards long after the chairs are stacked and the tables are put away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The young man came to Shepherd Community Center\u2019s first community resource fair on July 25 desperate to find a job and to find something to eat. The man\u2019s mother died when he was only 6 years old; his father is in prison. Seemingly alone and without regular access to necessities, the man found help at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-shepherd","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}