Very soon, Cornerstone will start a "Friday Job Club" a 12-week initiative of the Christian Women's Job Corps that combines personal development and work-skills training with prayer and Bible study.

This powerful combination focuses the career search on God in addition to improving the skills of the participants. We are extremely excited about this program and hope you are too.

If you know anyone who could benefit from any kind of work-skills training, we would love to hear from you. Our goal is not only to improve the professional lives of our clients, but also the personal and spiritual as well.

Below is a flyer advertising the Friday Job Club. It begins Feb. 19, 2010. Classes are held through May 21, 2010. All classes are on Fridays from 9:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Lunch and snacks are provided.

If you would like more information on the Friday Job Club including how you can get involved, please contact Janet Powers, Certified CWJC Site Coordinator, at 817-632-6015.

Over the weekend our housing clients attended a quarterly life skills and training workshop.

Featured classes included how to cook cheap and family friendly recipes, budgeting, how organize their homes to save money and even how to make soap. These workshops are especially important during the holiday season, when it is easy to overspend.

Perhaps the most creative tidbit our clients received was a recipe for homemade soap. Cheaper than buying Tide at the grocery store, the recipe is simple and just as effective. If you'd like the recipe, contact VISTA Leader Cassandra Robin at crobin@canetwork.org

Like most events Cornerstone does, it would not have been a success without the gracious help of volunteers, who donated their time to watch over our client's children.

We at Cornerstone hope that our clients take what they learn in these workshops and use it to improve their finances, their homes and their families. It's our goal that each of our clients leave Cornerstone standing on their own two feet, completely self-sufficient. These workshops are just another step in the process.

Cornerstone's Workforce Development clients are learning to budget, track their spending and stay out of debt in a new course called "Managing Your Money."

The purpose of the course is to help clients of Cornerstone's Workforce Development program establish good financial habits as they enter the workforce and gain independence, some for the very first time.

The course covers the five steps financial awareness:

1. Be aware of what you spend and earn.
2. Build Good credit.
3. Avoid debt.
4. Spend your money wisely.
5. Save for the future.

Each of these steps is further broken down in to a step-by-step, easy to follow guide for the beginner to help those just starting to learn how to manage their finances. Because this task can be difficult for even those with advanced degrees, the step-by-step, common sense approach to money management helps clients see money as an asset that can work in their favor, instead of something to be worried about all the time.

The course offers several practical steps for budgeting including the envelope system and using a software program like Microsoft Excel or Quicken. However you do it, keeping track of what you spend and earn is vitally important.

For those with debt issues, there are a few practical tips to pay down that high-interest credit card or student loan, such as paying your bills on time, paying more the minimum balance and avoiding carrying credit cards to eliminate impulse buying.

Cornerstone is proud of the fact that we are a Christian ministry. So as part of this course, the importance of tithing is stressed, because the money is God's anyway.

"Bring the whole tithe in to the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. "Test me this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the flood gates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."- Micah 3:10

If we have the faith to give to God what is God's, he will bless us 10-fold.

Cornerstone Christian Women's Job Corps is a ministry that seeks to equip women in need for life and employment. This is accomplished through job skills and readiness training combined with individual mentoring relationships.

Christian Women's Job Corps is open to any woman 18 or older, regardless of her religious background or ethnicity, who seeks the necessary skills and encouragement to achieve success in self-sufficiency.

CCWJC students learn:

• Tools for life


• Reading and writing


• Math and money management


• Typing and computer basics


• Zestful living


• Getting along


• Communication and public speaking


• Career preparation


• Resume writing


• Dress for success


• Daily Bible study

They also have the chance to:

• Network with successful women for job leads!


• Benefit from personal mentoring!


• Earn vouchers to shop in the Cornerstone Career Boutique!


• Update their resume and practice interviewing!


• Gain self-confidence!

Interested in helping or know someone who could use a hand up?
Winter 2010 classes will be held on Mondays and Wednesdays from October 25th through December 1st.

Cornerstone's Workforce Development creates job readiness programs that help move each individual toward independent living and full-time employment. Participants not only receive guidance in job training, but assistance with high school GED, English as a Second Language (ESL), and adult literacy. Other essential services such as transitional housing and medical care are offered to help a person maintain full-time employment.

Beginning with job readiness programs provided by the Cornerstone Christian Women's Job Corps, Workforce Development seeks to assist participants through the entire process of seeking, identifying, obtaining, and retaining a job in their chosen field. We also strive to connect job seekers with employers who work to facilitate retention and career opportunities for our participants.

A new and exciting component of this division is Cornerstone's Food Services and Hospitality Training Program. As part of the community meeting room in the main building, this program will offer participants a hands-on training site in Cornerstone's Creation Restaurant. Upon completion, lunch for 50-75 people can be served daily. It is anticipated that the restaurant will, when fully equipped, allow for 50 pallets of frozen meat and food to be kept for food service programs.


Life Skills and Job Readiness Training through CCWJC
Within Workforce Development, Cornerstone Christian Women's Job Corps offers a variety of training opportunities and workshops to teach participants life skills and get them ready for employment.


Workshops include:

• Business Etiquette
• Resume Writing
• Dressing for Success
• Organizing Your Job Search
• Tools for Life
• Personal Decision Making
• Tips for a Successful Interview
• Money Management
• Typing
• Computer Basics

Participant Qualifications

• Be at least 18 years of age
• Possess the desire to become financially, emotionally, and spiritually stable
• Have a willingness to do what it takes to realize the changes in your life

Interested in Helping?

Please contact Janet Powers at 817.632.6015 or ccwjc@canetwork.org today!

In Isaiah 43:19, the LORD says, “Behold, I will
do something new. Now it will spring
forth; will you not be aware of it? I will
even make a roadway in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert.”

I think my favorite part of that verse is the question,
“Will you not be aware of it?” So often in our lives, we
miss the excitement of the new things God is doing all
around us because we take our eyes off of Him, fixing
them instead on all of the wilderness and deserts yet to
be conquered.

This is definitely a season of new things at
Cornerstone, including our newest division, Workforce
Development. Building on the foundation of our
Christian Women’s Job Corps job readiness programs,
we are ready to begin expanding services into job
training programs and eventually job placement
opportunities for our clients. I like to tell people that
my job at Cornerstone is to connect people to jobs.
As you might imagine, that’s no small task in this
economy, but we are all so excited about the potential
for using every part of this new building as a training
facility for jobs in everything from healthcare (medical
clinic) to retail (resale shop) and logistics (warehouse)
to hospitality (kitchen).

One of the first verses I always share with our clients
is I Corinthians 15:57, “Thanks be to God who
gives us victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ,” because if I did not truly believe that we
served a way-making God capable of seeing each of
them through to victory over the wilderness and
deserts in their lives, I couldn’t continue to do this
work. But, it is such a delight to introduce so many
of them to a fresh awareness of who God is and the
new things He wants to accomplish in them and
through them.

I think our volunteers experience it, too, as
they walk alongside our clients on that journey.
As I recently told a tour group, if you have got a
desire to serve the Lord by serving others in need,
Cornerstone has a desire to help make that happen!
Are you a business owner or hiring manager? Come
talk to our clients about what you are looking for in
an employee, or help us develop a plan for training
and screening potential employees for you. Are
you a stay at home mom? Come talk to our ladies
about life skills that help make you and your family
happier and healthier. Did you start at the bottom
and work your way up in your career field? Come
talk to our clients about that process; encourage
them about the benefits of developing a strong
work ethic. Join our prayer team to receive regular
updates about our clients and how you can pray
specifically for the needs of this ministry.

A.W. Tozer said, “If we surrender our hearts to
God we may expect a wondrous enlargement.”
Offering to Him all that we are, to be used however
He sees fit, is an investment opportunity with
immeasurable returns.