Job Club, victim of tough times, shuts down

Barbara Ganan's career was helping find jobs for older workers who'd been laid off.

But last month, she was shocked to find herself in the same situation.

"Now I'm in their shoes. I have to go out and do the same thing I've been teaching them to do for 20 years," Ganan said. "I went through all the things that my clients went through: shock, disbelief, anger, depression and acceptance."

Ganan was a career counselor at the Job Club, a free program based in Arlington Heights and Evanston run by the nonprofit National Able Network. The clubs helped teach job-seeking skills to unemployed people older than 50.

But as of Tuesday, the Job Club stopped receiving federal Workforce Investment Act funds, and the network's Job Club program had to be cut, along with Ganan's job.

Last year, WIA funds provided the $150,000 needed to run the program. This year's reduction comes after a change in the way the WIA funds have to be spent, said Jennifer Stasch, executive director of the Workforce Board of Northern Cook County. Forty percent of the federally funded program needs to go toward direct occupational training such as education and licensing - not the job-search training the Job Club provides.

"It will make an impact to those individuals who need that service, but we do have those services continuing through other programs," Stasch said. "We'll be working with those individuals to ensure that they're being connected with other programs."

But the clients who got help from Job Club are devastated.

"I came there really depressed," said Lawrence Aronov of Western Springs, who was laid off after his job was outsourced. "I'd been going to doctors and psychologists and it was the Job Club that pulled me together."

National Able Network officials say the cut couldn't come at a worse time.

"In a tough economy, older workers bear a disproportionate burden and suffer greater than other portions of the population," said Brian Caminer, the network's vice president of workforce programs. "In these difficult economic times, they need more services, not less services."

The Job Club provided tips on interview skills, resume-writing and self-marketing to about 40 people a year in each of the two offices.

"We did everything that an outplacement firm does, but we did it for free," Ganan said. "Outplacement firms could charge between $1,500 and $3,000."

Job Club participants met weekly in groups of about 10. Nancy Buck of Arlington Heights said after she was laid off from her job, she found comfort in the group environment.

"You become a family," she said. "It's a help to know there are other people going through what you're going through."

Buck said she hopes the agency finds the money to reinstate the program, and Stasch said that's possible. But Aronov said he's going to "take the bull by the horns" and continue what he's learned: He hopes to organize meetings with Job Club participants in the Schaumburg library.

"We know what we need to do," he said, "but we wouldn't have known if we didn't have (the Job Club) to help us.