The goal of the Christian Women's Job Corps is to provide a Christian context in which women in need are equipped for life and employment; and a missions context in which women help women. CWJC is designed to meet the needs of women and prepare them for higher education and / or employment opportunities in their community. CWJC wants to help women personally, professionally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Involvement in CWJC is voluntary and participants are not limited by race, life circumstances, income, or religious preferences. CWJC is open to all women seeking skills and encouragement needed to move from dependency to self-sufficiency.
CWJC is different from other job readiness programs. Each woman involved in the program is involved in Bible Study. She is also matched with a Christian woman who is trained to be her mentor as she travels the road from dependency to self-sufficiency. Basic reading skills are needed with the only other requirements being...a desire to "choose to change" and a thirst for advancement as a productive and self-sufficient citizen.
Affiliations
Lubbock Chamber of Commerce
Leave a Legacy Lubbock
HISTORY
It was hot in Dallas in July, 1994. That’s nothing new. But there was something new, not weather-related, taking place in the Baptist Building. About a dozen people from across the country met at the invitation of national WMU executive director Dellanna O’Brien to discuss ideas for addressing the plight of women in poverty.
Texans in that meeting included Texas WMU Executive Director Joy Fenner, Adult Consultant Pat Luttrell, San Antonio Association Ministry Coordinator Camille Simmons, and River Ministry representatives Elmin Howell and Jerry Johnson.
After hearing a startling overview of statistics and real-life stories, we began to brainstorm ideas…from a one-woman-to-one-woman ministry to purchasing several blocks in downtown Chicago. Now that’s brainstorming big! Twenty-four hours later, after much dreaming and thinking and talking (even disagreeing, would you believe?), we had formulated a plan. It would take lots of resources, lots of people, lots of prayer. We could do it! Texas WMU would do it!
Camille Simmons, one of the “eagerest beavers” in the meeting, volunteered San Antonio Association as a pilot project, joining with South Carolina and Chicago. Other pilots were added in the next few months, but Camille was already thinking far ahead of the rest of us. With the blessing and support of Director of Missions Lewis Lee, Camille went to work lining up volunteers, business and government contacts, churches, and financial contributors. San Antonio’s CWJC became the shining star of this new endeavor and still serves as one of the models for new CWJC ministries across the nation.
Word spread quickly across Texas, and requests began pouring into the state office. Soon Lubbock and Dallas were well on their way to formulating their own programs, building on the model in San Antonio but designed for their own settings. First Baptist Houston later began CWJC through their ministry center.
But visionary women all over Texas knew this wasn’t something limited to the big cities. Tyler, Kerrville, Silsbee, Olney, Fredericksburg, Harlingen, Amarillo…all ripe for such a ministry...all spearheaded by women who felt a God-call on their lives for this ministry.
Texas WMU added an allocation for CWJC in the Mary Hill Davis Offering® for Texas Missions. Grants were written; individual and corporate donors responded—Baptists and non-Baptist; churches and associations contributed.
It was a big dream that July day in 1994. It is a dream that has become reality in many communities in Texas, providing “dreams come true” for many women who had lost hope. And that’s what it’s all about …to provide a Christian context in which women in need are equipped for life and employment….
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