Copyright AL.com
Several organizations who want to give back to the Huntsville community gathered at the First Baptist Church, lovingly known as the Egg Beater Jesus Church. It’s one of many Huntsville-isms showcased at the event. Rocket City organizations wanted to prove that another Huntsville-ism is coming together to help the large number furloughed hard-working federal government employees. The Food Bank of North Alabama estimates that 23,000 federal workers are furloughed in Huntsville. A resource fair specifically for the workers included short term emloyment opportnities, health and financial institutions. Leaders said approximately 300 furloughed workers went to the event on Thursday but several more arrived on Friday. Furloughed workers are reaching a difficult point in the government shutdown. Some thought they would get backpay after two weeks, now bills are arriving and their wallets are running dry. Organizations from the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce to the Space and Rocket Center to the Redstone Federal Credit Union wanted to support the workers who have not received a paycheck in over a month due to the government shutdown. Leaders like Melissa Caldwell with Wellstone said they are sharing that they are becoming increasingly stressed and lonely. “A lot of the people that have stopped by our table have expressed an increase in stress and needing someone to talk to,” said Caldwell. “We’ve had a lot of people express just a bit of feeling disconnected from their co workers, and feeling a little bit of loneliness from that and just wanting someone to talk to. Also, people have mentioned that it’s reached a point in the shutdown where now there’s just a lot more fear, not just about how long it will go on, but also the potential of losing benefits.” She said it’s important to have events specifically for furloughed government workers. “A lot of times, people are hesitant to take resources away from those they think might need it more,” she explained. “Having an event where it’s just federal workers, they can come with their co-workers, but also they know these resources are specifically set aside from them so they feel more comfortable accessing and using them.” Several organizations came to the event to try and help them make ends meet by offering temporary, short term or non-traditional job opportunities. Calhoun and Drake State Community Colleges both sent representatives to recruit furloughed workers to be part-time faculty and adjunct professors for a variety of classes. Interim Director of Workforce at Calhoun Jamie Glover said subjects include anything from a logistics class to aerospace technology to teaching Microsoft Office. They don’t need a certification to teach several subjects. “It just depends on the class,” she explained. “If they’re an aerospace technician and they’ve been in the field for 25 years, they know what they’re doing, so they can certainly teach an entry level aerospace technician. You know you’re talking about certifications they already have. If you’re talking about an Excel class. If they’ve been doing Excel for 15 years, they can teach a basic Excel class. So there’s no pre qualifications they need. They just need the skill and the desire to want to teach others.” She said the schedule is flexible, so if the government reopens soon, they can still teach in the afternoons or weekends if they decide to stay. Interested workers can apply here. The Rocket City Trash Pandas provided seasonal opportunities. There are part time line cook and prep cook positions for the Trash Pandas Christmas Light Show. Temp agency Spherion recruited for a variety of jobs, which include short-term general office jobs to technology, logistics and manufacturing roles. Market Manager Adam Chalmers said that they can find opportunities that workers can leave when the government reopens. Chalmers said he saw a 50% increase in applicants over the past two weeks, as the shutdown has amplified. He said some candidates were looking to leave the government entirely. “I think that people like to wait as long as they possibly can to have to ask for help, but we’ve reached the point in the shutdown where there’s just no nothing else you can do, except to reach out at this point,” said Caldwell. “The lack of resources and the strain of what happens with paying bills and being able to eat overrides just those feelings of shame.” Chamber of Commerce leaders say they are open to hosting another event like this if the shutdown persists.
