Education Extra
A recent partnership with Jefferson State Community College offers an exciting opportunity for the graduates of Hope Inspired Ministries (HIM) through a program called ReGeneration. The growing healthcare field needs experienced workers to fill administrative roles. Qualified graduates enter the Administrative Medical Assistant program designed especially for workers over 40 years of age seeking new opportunities; this program helps leverage career experience and develops the technical knowledge needed to begin a new career. At the end of the 5-week program, ReGeneration and AARP Foundation support graduates applying to and interviewing with employer partners across Birmingham.
HIM is a work-force development program whose focus is on chronically unemployed men and women ages 18-49. There are many reasons why people find themselves in these circumstances and HIM seeks to address these in order to help them transform into productive citizens. Instead of bringing a traditional band-aid approach by helping people survive in poverty, HIM’s approach is radically different. HIM trains people, through a system of structure and accountability combined with empathy and compassion, how to escape the hopelessness and despair found in a lifetime of poverty. Due to its proven formula for success, HIM expanded their services into the Birmingham communities of Woodlawn, East Lake, and surrounding areas in 2017. In 2019, a partnership with The Foundry Ministries began in the Birmingham area to serve the men seeking help in their program. Through a collaborative effort with the Montgomery Baptist Association, HIM also expanded into Lowndes County in 2020.
HIM Graduates enter ReGeneration. Before Hope Inspired Ministries, Demetra was hurt. She had escaped an abusive relationship, lost her job of 14 years, lost her home and was in a car accident that almost took her life. The next thing she knew her phone rang and Darius Haney, the Career Coach at HIM, invited her to a career development program called Hope Inspired Ministries. During her time with HIM, Demetra learned so many valuable skills to take on her job and to help her family move forward with life. God renewed her heart of hurt to a heart of joy. Demetra, a recent graduate of HIM, is preparing to enter the ReGeneration program.
To learn more about Hope Inspired Ministries, visit hopeinspiredministries.org or call (205) 202-6305 to schedule a visit. Whether you need their help or would like to volunteer to serve, there is a place for you at HIM. †
