You’ve probably heard the old adage, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” But what do you do when a man knows how to fish but struggles with addiction? How can you help him feed himself for a lifetime when a lifetime of trauma makes it hard for him to hold down a job?

These are the problems Atlanta Mission’s Next Steps vocational program seeks to address as we engage our clients in the last step of our Transformation Model. We believe that fruitful labor is both the reward and the motivation for those emerging from homelessness, and we’ve committed to walking with our clients as they establish themselves as employees and build career dreams for their futures.

Atlanta Mission’s Next Steps program is a six week intensive course in which clients learn job development skills. Many of the people who receive our services have been able to secure jobs in the past, but keeping them is another matter. The Next Steps program’s therapeutic model engages both the head and heart of clients, helping them to identify their strengths and weaknesses and showing them how harnessing their abilities can offer them job security for the long haul.

Participants in our program learn interview skills through role playing and receive help building resumes that attract employers’ attention. Each one must acknowledge the difficulties they’ve faced in the past with employment and commit to developing the skills and character qualities necessary for future success. As the last step toward emerging from homelessness, the Next Steps program builds upon months of other successes in recovery groups, support group sessions, and life skills classes.

Heading back into the job force after homelessness can be intimidating. Atlanta Mission is committed to our clients’ success, and a retention coach follows each Next Steps participant for a year to encourage employment longevity. Even when it’s hard, our clients tell us that heading back to work offers them a boost of hope as they establish their lives. We affirm the value of fruitful labor, and we’re always excited to see our clients celebrate it too.