Getting Back to Work

People who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own are eligible to seek unemployment compensation. The Chipola Workforce Development Board’s One Stop Career Center is the perfect place to get started if you need assistance in getting through the process of signing up for it.

There, you can get into the system to start receiving compensation if you do qualify. There are people on hand to help walk you through the process if you are unfamiliar with computers, the process in general or don’t have an e-mail address. One Stop strongly advises that job-seekers establish one in order to receive important information in a timely fashion along the way. One Stop can help you establish an address, which you can then access from any Internet-enabled computer.

The unemployment compensation system has changed in recent years. For instance, to receive this assistance you must make contact with five potential employers each week, or make a service visit to the One Stop which can count for the contacts.

Doing so shows that you are actively seeking new employment, a necessary endeavor in order to receive compensation. You have to report on these activities every two weeks to continue receiving the money, and these claims reports can be made at the One Stop.

But that’s just the beginning of what’s available to you at the center.

A major step you can take there is to sign in to the state’s Employ Florida system. Doing so gives you access to all the job listings held there, which, these days, includes almost every employment opportunity in the state’s private and public sector. Most employers now look for their workers through this system, and the state-wide One Stop system is their main partner in the search for employees.

People visiting the One Stop can sign in at a computer kiosk when they arrive there, entering information about what they’d like to achieve while they’re there. The information is sent to the appropriate person in the center, and you will be assisted as soon as the person is available to help. This streamlined approach is helping the center more efficiently deal with both the volume of people they’re seeing and the wide range of services they are seeking.

One Stop helps people from age 16 to the age of 90. Chipola Worforce Executive Director Richard Williams said 24 people 85 years of age or older are looking for work, and of those, four are at least 90 years of age. One-Stop records show that, on average, about 1,000 people a week access the Employ Florida system there. That total doesn’t include all the people who walk through the doors.

The people looking for jobs through One Stop are able to get help preparing their resumes and job applications, arrange to update work skills, and take an assessment that will help them set realistic goals for employment, indentify their true areas of interest, and determine what skills they may need to obtain in reaching out for the jobs they want.

They may also be able to get financial assistance to help with the cost of school. One Stop can sometimes offer employers some assistance in paying the salaries of displaced workers who come on board as employees-in-training, as well. Getting signed into Employ Florida can help potential employees be in the sights of employers who may take advantage of that wage-assistance program.

The One Stop can help job-seekers navigate the job search system, and those enrolled in the One Stop programs have use of the Internet service there, along with telephone, fax and copy machines as they carry out activities in the attempt to get work.

There are some special services available to veterans through One Stop, as well.

Job-seekers can also use the One Stop to help in other areas of their lives, such as the state’s food stamp system, child care assistance programs, and many other services.

Williams said One Stop stands ready to assist, but the first step must be taken by the people who need them.

“When people go through the loss of a job, we see this all the time, they go through the same stages of grief that we go through when we lose a loved one,” Williams said. “There’s denial, depression, anger, bargaining, and finally, acceptance. If they’re getting stuck at one of these levels, it’s more difficult for them to act. We just want them to know that we’re out there, that there’s somebody here who cares about your situation and we’re going to help you. But you have to take the step of coming in.”

Williams said the very act of taking that one step can be therapeutic on its own.

“If you can do that, you can start moving through the things we have to offer,” Williams said. “Being out of work is a difficult thing on a lot of levels, and people are going to go through a lot of feelings. They’re feeling shame, maybe, which is not deserved. They may be feeling like they’ve got the word ‘loser’ written across their foreheads, when in fact they are not losers, they’ve just fallen victim to the economic realities we face today. They’ve done nothing wrong and have nothing to be ashamed of, but they may be in that mindset.

“If they don’t do something to move past that, they find themselves making bad decisions, or being in a state of inaction that is only going to prolong their pain. Coming in is really a great way to get yourself moving again. We see people come in and, at first, they’re in a daze, but they can get help here. We start with where the person is, and work with them from there. We have people who say ‘What’s a mouse?,’ when we sit them down at a computer and tell them to move the mouse to a certain place. We’ve got people who had been on their old jobs so long, jobs that didn’t involve computers, that they’re at a loss when they start. That’s OK. We can show you ‘what’s a mouse.’”