Catholic Charities staffing agency has social mission
Published: Sunday, August 05, 2012
Ronald Graham, 59, came to New Orleans looking for work after the cleaning company that employed him in Orlando started bouncing checks. When I’m not working, I’m frustrated. ... I knew there was something better, and it wasn’t in Orlando,” he said.
Ron Graham poses for a photo outside Notre Dame Seminary, Friday July 27, 2012 where he is a custodian (and manager in training.) He was placed in this job by the Archdiocese ministry Community Staffing Services, "a staffing agency with a mission."
He turned to Community Staffing Services, a ministry of the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ Catholic Charities, and threw himself into whatever temporary job was offered.
“I did anything and everything they asked me to do. I cut grass, I stripped and waxed floors, I moved boxes,” he said.
After just three weeks, the service sent Graham to Notre Dame Seminary, where he now works as a custodial manager in training — a full time job with insurance and retirement benefits.
Community Staffing Services bills itself as “a staffing agency with a social mission.” The agency supplies skilled and unskilled workers, temporarily or longer, to the construction, hospitality, custodial, warehouse and film industries, said Greg Favret, executive director.
Some workers are referred by other Catholic Charities agencies; others find their way to CSS’s office at 1920 Clio St., around the corner from the New Orleans Mission.
“We don’t focus on one particular group, but we don’t exclude people,” Favret said. “If people have barriers to employment, we refer them to other Catholic Charities agencies.”
The 2-year-old alternative staffing agency has about 600 workers in its database. CSS is one of about 50 alternative staffing organizations around the nation, Favret said. “Alternative staffing organizations differ from traditional staffing organizations in that our focus is the success of the worker in finding employment,” he said.
Like for-profit staffing companies, CSS charges employers a fee on top of the worker’s pay. However, if a worker is hired directly by an employer, there’s no charge. Finding permanent, direct jobs for unemployed and underemployed people, such as Graham’s job at Notre Dame, is CSS’s goal, Favret said.
“We try to convert (contract) jobs to direct hires,” he said.
There’s an advantage for employers, who can make sure a worker is a good fit before putting him on the payroll. “It’s like dating, rather than getting married,” Favret said. “You get a chance to try that employee out.”
Workers undergo drug and background checks and can get help to become more employable, such as basic computer training under the supervision of Amanda Tonkovich, employment coordinator.
Placement fees are plowed back into the ministry. Now financed in part by a grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the office’s goal is to become self-supporting.
Favret has seen lives transformed by work. Cornell Brown, 49, is a former substance abuser who returned to his faith and gave up drugs 19 months ago.
“I was sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Brown said. “I was tired of disappointing myself, my family and most of all God.”
After 10 months in rehab, he applied at Community Staffing Services. “I am a living testimony that people can change their lives,” Brown said.
He now works two jobs: as a custodian at Incarnate Word Community Center and a carpet specialist with a dry cleaning business.
“There’s a real metamorphosis, when you have somebody who has been unemployed for a while and then they have a job,” Favret said. “There’s the job, but there’s also the structure. There’s dignity.”
Ron Graham poses for a photo outside Notre Dame Seminary, Friday July 27, 2012 where he is a custodian (and manager in training.) He was placed in this job by the Archdiocese ministry Community Staffing Services, "a staffing agency with a mission."“I did anything and everything they asked me to do. I cut grass, I stripped and waxed floors, I moved boxes,” he said.
After just three weeks, the service sent Graham to Notre Dame Seminary, where he now works as a custodial manager in training — a full time job with insurance and retirement benefits.
Community Staffing Services bills itself as “a staffing agency with a social mission.” The agency supplies skilled and unskilled workers, temporarily or longer, to the construction, hospitality, custodial, warehouse and film industries, said Greg Favret, executive director.
Some workers are referred by other Catholic Charities agencies; others find their way to CSS’s office at 1920 Clio St., around the corner from the New Orleans Mission.
“We don’t focus on one particular group, but we don’t exclude people,” Favret said. “If people have barriers to employment, we refer them to other Catholic Charities agencies.”
The 2-year-old alternative staffing agency has about 600 workers in its database. CSS is one of about 50 alternative staffing organizations around the nation, Favret said. “Alternative staffing organizations differ from traditional staffing organizations in that our focus is the success of the worker in finding employment,” he said.
Like for-profit staffing companies, CSS charges employers a fee on top of the worker’s pay. However, if a worker is hired directly by an employer, there’s no charge. Finding permanent, direct jobs for unemployed and underemployed people, such as Graham’s job at Notre Dame, is CSS’s goal, Favret said.
“We try to convert (contract) jobs to direct hires,” he said.
There’s an advantage for employers, who can make sure a worker is a good fit before putting him on the payroll. “It’s like dating, rather than getting married,” Favret said. “You get a chance to try that employee out.”
Workers undergo drug and background checks and can get help to become more employable, such as basic computer training under the supervision of Amanda Tonkovich, employment coordinator.
Placement fees are plowed back into the ministry. Now financed in part by a grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the office’s goal is to become self-supporting.
Favret has seen lives transformed by work. Cornell Brown, 49, is a former substance abuser who returned to his faith and gave up drugs 19 months ago.
“I was sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Brown said. “I was tired of disappointing myself, my family and most of all God.”
After 10 months in rehab, he applied at Community Staffing Services. “I am a living testimony that people can change their lives,” Brown said.
He now works two jobs: as a custodian at Incarnate Word Community Center and a carpet specialist with a dry cleaning business.
“There’s a real metamorphosis, when you have somebody who has been unemployed for a while and then they have a job,” Favret said. “There’s the job, but there’s also the structure. There’s dignity.”
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For more information on Community Staffing Services, call 504.310.6953 or email gfavret@ccano.org.
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