Mercy Loans Successful at Advance

Memphis is the poorest metro area in the United States.

38126 is the poorest urban zip code in Tennessee.

Given those stats, it might be easy to make assumptions about the people who live here. One that would seem obvious is this: people in this neighborhood are quick to borrow money and slow to pay it back.

We wouldn't fault you for assuming this. We did. But you know what's beautiful? We were wrong.

We've offered Mercy Loans to our graduates for many years. These loans are meant to address an immediate, felt need and to help the graduate avoid the pitfall of payday loans at usurious interest rates. For the last 2 years, we've carefully tracked our Mercy Loan Data. Below are the statistics for 2011, which clearly prove that our grads repay that which they borrow. Their repayment allows us to "recycle" the funds, ensuring that other grads are able to benefit from Mercy Loans.

In short, because our grads are faithful in repaying, a mere $1500 has done all the work you see below. Read and be encouraged!

MERCY LOAN DATA: 2011

Mercy Loan budget: $1500 dollars to be rotated through repayment of loans.

Number of loans made in 2011: 128.

Average loan amount: $87.00.

Number of loans repaid, year to date: 106, paid in full.

Number of loans defaulted: 9.

Number of times we have revolved our loan pool:
7.4 times...that's $11,120!

But Why Phase 2?

NOTE: Page down for a "Post Script" on the recent success of the Phase 2 program.

Our educational and employment teams worked together to develop Phase 2, a new program that gives our Jobs for Life students the opportunity to begin working while continuing their job readiness training and/or their GED preparation. Below, Education Coordinator Michael Rhodes explains the philosophy behind the program that was implemented late this summer.

Phase 2 grad and Warehouse Readiness student Jenny Williams
with Warehouse instructor Mike Shaw.

Because Advance Memphis has always been committed to people before programs, whenever we add a new program the question needs to be asked: “Why another program?” With Phase 2, the answer is easy: P2 is a program centered on people.

But first, the “what.” Phase 2 gives Jobs for Life graduates the opportunity to come back one day a week for six weeks after they graduate. Each Wednesday they return to meet with their Champions, discuss work issues with Walter Jackson, our Employment Support Specialist, and receive training on a number of key life issues that affect one’s work life. These topics include Leadership, Creative Solutions, Healthy Relationships, and others, some of which have been covered in the Jobs for Life class and are reemphasized again in P2, and some of which are new. P2 is flexible, so if a student wants more, they get more. Students who need their GEDs come an additional three mornings a week for class. Students who are struggling with addiction have the opportunity to attend an afternoon support group.

The entire program is also offered to older graduates who have been terminated from Advance Memphis Staffing and need further training in order to be able to return to work (the Restore and Renew track). The entire P2 program is designed so that JFL graduates can work part-time and attend Advance classes part-time.

Now the “why.” First and foremost, adults learn by doing. P2 gives grads an opportunity to hear again some of the most important lessons from JFL, and then go out and apply those concepts on the job the next day. When we talk about conflict in the workplace in P2, quite a number of students sitting in those chairs are currently involved in some sort of conflict on the job. This “applied learning” means that students really digest the critical material.

Phase 2 students take a GED locator test.

Second, the transition from a warm, encouraging, supportive environment where a student is loved and cared for from 9-3 five days a week for six weeks to the real world challenges of working can be DIFFICULT. Many of our grads have never had a job before. Others haven’t had one in a long time. For these grads, entering the daily grind after 5 weeks of dreaming about their career goals can be tough. P2 gives our grads the opportunity to ease their way into the workforce, while establishing a pattern of relational engagement with Advance.

Third, P2 means that our students get 11 meetings with their Champions instead of just 5! Already we’ve gotten rave reviews on the added time from participants and students alike. Champions are “championing” their groups’ cause at Advance and throughout the city by making hospital visits, babysitting, grabbing lunch, making phone calls, praying with and for their group members and MORE. One of the most exciting things that happens at Advance every week is the real world racial reconciliation that happens when folks from outside this neighborhood and culture build real relationships with people from this neighborhood. We’re seeing stereotypes die, compassion grow, and true Christian fellowship leading students and Champions deeper in their walk with Christ.

Fourth and finally, Jobs for Life grads ALWAYS ask for MORE. At the end of every JFL class we give an opportunity for feedback, and every class calls for more time at Advance! P2 is therefore Advance’s best effort to respond to a real request from our community.

But all of this MORE also means that we need MORE HELP! P2 means more GED tutors, more Champions, more lunch providers, and more donations. But the investment is already paying off with more GEDs, more jobs, more relationships of reconciliation, and more lives changed. We praise God for the energy and excitement surrounding P2, and we pray that many more lives will be changed through this exciting new program.

POST SCRIPT

The "Restore and Renew" portion of Phase 2 has done more than we could "ask or imagine." Not only have terminated grads returned to work, but 2 of these (Derrick, pictured at left and Rafael, not pictured) have been hired as permanent employees at KTG.