April 13, 2010--Millville--Residents have another option to start their job search amid the worst economy since the Great Depression. Bethel Development Corp. has started its own career counseling center at Bethel AME Church on South 5th Street in partnership with the Vineland-based Cumberland County One-Stop Career Center.

 The church's nonprofit organization started the Project Connect program in January with a $300,000 grant from the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development, according to Pastor Charles Wilkins, Bethel's founder and CEO.

The program also provides job-hunting services at Bethel's sister AME churches in Salem, Atlantic and Cape May counties. It aims to find people not served by area One-Stop Centers, either because of transportation issues or because they're unaware of what the centers offer, Wilkins said. "Our job is to act as outreach to those people who cannot make it into a One-Stop," he said. The initiative comes at a crucial time for Cumberland County, where the most recent unemployment figure, calculated in February, is 14.9 percent. That's the second-highest among New Jersey's 21 counties.

The AME centers are connected with the One-Stop Centers' job information. Job-seekers can go to the church, provide their information and look for potential jobs with assistance from one of three job counselors Bethel hired with the grant. Once a possible match is found, counselor Christina Campbell said, Bethel will set up an appointment with the One-Stop Center. That cuts down on paperwork residents would need to fill out at the Vineland facility and they get more individualized attention at Bethel, she said. "We do an initial intake of every client that comes in and do follow-ups with each client," Campbell said. Wilkins said Bethel has worked with One-Stop for the past five years through its social programs.

Its staff also can help residents with other issues related to unemployment, such as drug and alcohol counseling, food donations and getting educational training, he said. Hope Heldreth, Bethel's director of operations, said clients probably feel less intimidated when they walk into Bethel instead of going to the One-Stop. The four churches counsel about 100 people every week, but numbers are increasing as word spreads, she said. Jerry Stancill, a truck driver who was laid off in December, visited the center Wednesday. It was far more convenient than going to One-Stop, he said. "They've been really great to work with," he said. "They are very nice."