Most days, Gloria Pérez Jurado boards a bus in the city to a Drury Hotel, where she spends her shift cleaning rooms as a housekeeper.
Gloria’s job came at a moment when she was running out of the funds to support herself, her teenage daughter and a newborn grandchild. She occasionally had been visiting St. Francis Community Services for diapers for her grandchild and other resources, when she learned about Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of St. Louis’ Workforce Development program.
St. Francis Community Services helped her craft a résumé, navigate an online application and connect with an employer that she could realistically reach by bus. Within two weeks’ time, Gloria received a call from the hotel and started the day after completing her paperwork.
“Right now, my daughter and my grandson rely on me,” Gloria said through an interpreter. “I was almost two months unemployed, and I was reaching a point where I didn’t have the money to pay rent, to pay for electricity.” Finding work that allows her to support her family’s expenses has been meaningful, she added.
Gloria is one example of Catholic Charities’ growing Workforce Development program, which connects clients at ministries such as St. Francis Community Services with employers that offer sustainable work.
Through relationships with companies such as Drury Hotels and other corporate partners, the program focuses on positions with livable wages, benefits and opportunities for advancement so that clients can support their families, build stability and change the trajectory of their lives, said Deacon Pat Waldschmidt, program coordinator and Catholic Charities’ director of corporate philanthropy.
Drawing on his decades of experience in the manufacturing industry, Deacon Pat has expanded job opportunities through Workforce Development with employers such as Drury Hotels, hospital partners SSM Health and BJC HealthCare, as well as with several trade unions.
Case managers across Catholic Charities’ ministries, including St. Francis Community Services, identify clients who are ready for work, help them prepare résumés and applications and then refer them to Deacon Pat, who connects them with employers needing workers and can offer stable, benefit‑eligible jobs with room for advancement.
The goal is to help connect individuals with work that can sustain a family over the long term. “You don’t want somebody who can get a job at, again, McDonald’s or Target — nothing against that — but it’s got to be more than that,” he said. “It has to be something where not only are the wages at a very livable level, but then they’re receiving health benefits and paid vacation and maybe educational opportunities. We don’t want to give them a job; we want to give them a change in their life perspective and trajectory.”
Through a relationship with St. Mary’s South Side Catholic High School and its student trades program, Catholic Charities made connections with several trade unions, including the AFL-CIO’s construction apprenticeship program, the Midwest Carpenters Union and the Laborers’ Union.
“Many workers are aging out and they’re desperate for people,” Deacon Pat said. “We’re talking about providing jobs that have wealth change. People can get employment where they can not only buy a car, but buy a house and send their kids to good schools and have generational wealth.”
As Catholic Charities continues to develop partnerships with additional employers, it also is working with parishes and other organizations that have individuals seeking employment, Deacon Pat said.
“I’ll get calls from parishes saying, ‘We have somebody that needs a job, can you help them?’” he said. “Nurses for Newborns has contacted me a couple times and said, ‘We’ve got someone we’re working with, and they’re in the middle of nursing school and they would like to get hired.’”
“Parishes around the archdiocese should understand that Catholic Charities is a solution for them in a variety of ways,” he said. “Something as easy as placing people in employment — we can do that, and we can do that beyond parishes, too.”
Learn more
To learn more about Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of St. Louis and how to support its ministries, visit ccstl.org.
Catholic Charities welcomes companies interested in partnering with the Workforce Development program. To learn more, contact Deacon Pat Waldschmidt at patrickwaldschmidt@archstl.org.
