Our vision and our strength

I've been hearing some existential questions from our membership and our leadership.  They seem to boil down to 1) Why are we here? and 2) What makes us special?

 

Let me start with our mission statement:

East Bay Professional Experience Network is an association of proactive professionals working together to empower each other to become successfully employed.

 

Why are we here? To help each other become successfully employed. Simple, right?

It breaks down further into two parts 1) "Help each other" and 2) "Successfully employed".

 

How do we help each other? Let me quote my last editorial:

  • Supporting Persistance with:
    • Confidence from training
    • Motivation from personal support
    • Opportunity through networking
    • Knowledge from resources

Of those 4 services, 3 are available in some form or another through other programs.  Perhaps they are not as well tailored to our demographics or focused so tightly on our definition of "Successfully employed", but Training, Networking and Resources are available elsewhere.  Peer support is not, to my knowledge, offered through any job-search organization in the area.

 

Peer Support is where EB PEN should and does shine.  This is our vision and our strength. Helping each other, not just with the training, not just with the networking contacts (though those are crucially important!) but with the understanding and compassion of true peers in a difficult situation. And this is what makes us special.

Our current mechanisms for Peer Support are Success Teams and General Meetings.  Of those two, Success Teams are struggling badly, both new and old.  I truly feel we need to turn our attention to how Success Teams are structured and supported.  The vast majority of our members have either lost their Success Team by attrition or never had one.  Those that are in strong Teams universally acclaim them. 

I have no experience in setting up groups like Success Teams, but I think we need to build/create/put in place some means for re-engaging our members and getting them the support they need. I would really welcome some ideas and/or leadership in revamping the Success Team framework.

 Then there is "Successfully employed".  Well, whole other subject.  For now I'll just say I don't count minimum-wage jobs, flipping burgers or parking cars as successfully employed. 

 

That's enough for now.

- Charlie