Job Training and Placement: Helping Dozens

WORKING FOR A NEW LIFE
Job Training and Placement: Helping Dozens Find Employment Every Year
By: Hilde Hartnett
The Lord’s Place’s (TLP) clients overcome many obstacles to get their lives on track. Often, getting a job is
both the most crucial and the most difficult step.
TLP’s Job Training and Placement Program helps dozens of clients find employment every year, but it isn’t
easy.
“There is still a lot of resistance because of all the barriers our clients have,’’ said Andrea Varas, TLP Job
Developer. Those barriers include criminal and otherwise troubled pasts, which understandably give potential
employers pause.
There are, however, significant benefits and protections for employers willing to take on a TLP client,
including the opportunity to hire an employee on a trial basis, without having to pay his or her wages.
Hiring incentives include the following:
• On the Job Training: This program allows a business to train and employ a TLP client at no cost for
two to three months. TLP subsidizes the client’s pay.
• Tax Credits: The Work Opportunity Tax Credit provides up to $2400 for each adult a company hires.
Some clients have culinary, clerical, other other skills gained through TLP apprenticeship programs, while
others have learned forklift operations, truck driving or other trades. Others have completed more extensive
programs in such areas as cosmetology or welding. Many are willing and able to learn on the job.
Often the best matches for TLP clients include such businesses as restaurants, retail stores and boutiques,
small hotel chains, offices, property management companies, assisted living facilities and substance abuse
programs.
The Lord’s Place staff knows their clients. They recognize who is ready to take on the responsibility of a job
and what kind of support they need to be successful.
The staff also know their clients’ value.
“We are offering people who are loyal and extremely humble and hardworking. They tend to come to work
earlier than the average person and leave later because they come from nothing and they know the
importance of having landed a job after so many years. Many do have gaps in employment. They are so
grateful when they finally land a job that they are willing to go above and beyond for that employer,’’ said
Varas.
For more information on Job Training and Placement contact Andrea Varas at The Lord’s Place:
(561)537-4644 or AVaras@thelordsplace.org.
2808 N. Australian Avenue • West Palm Beach, FL 33407 • (561) 537-4638 • thelordsplace.org