A recovering drug addict lost her way until she joined Christian Women’s Job Corps

Felicia Myers was a recovering drug addict who had spent time in jail. With only a high school degree, she did not foresee much of a future for herself.

The 44-year-old Columbus woman is now a social worker with a master’s degree.

Victoria McDurmond says she was headed down the “path to nowhere.”

The 20-year-old Phenix City woman now has a part-time job and is a full-time college student working to become a medical assistant.

Both credit their turnaround to the Christian Women’s Job Corps of Greater Columbus, which has been located for the past 10 years in the headquarters of the Columbus Baptist Association on Steam Mill Road.

The program works to give women in need hope for the future, where their dreams can become reality and they can be self-sufficient.

The Christian Women’s Job Corps is a ministry of the Women’s Missionary Union, which provides certification but each location is autonomous and self-funding.

At no cost to them, participants in the program attend classes on Monday through Thursday from 8:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. The curriculum consists of computer training, job skills, job search skills, personal finances, professional dress style, hair, makeup, anger management, communication and parenting.

“We even teach etiquette,” Gwen Foster said.

Foster has been the director since its beginning in 2002 but at a different site. Foster is a former senior financial analyst with Pratt & Whitney and teaches online courses in career development for Miller-Motte College.

Foster said there are two 16-week sessions. Each usually begins with about a dozen students, 18 and older, but there is attrition and sometimes only half finish.

“It is work. It has to be taken seriously,” Foster said. “It is a huge commitment. You have to be committed to do this, committed to a better future.”

She added that the women bond in the classes and build good Christian relationships.

Though GED materials are used and there is work in subjects such as math, science and social studies, the program is not geared at preparing for the GED test.

Two distinct features of the program are Bible study and mentors. Women help other women to be self-sufficient and do it in a Christian context.

“The Bible study is important, but no denomination is promoted,” Foster said.

Each student gets a mentor with whom she may confide.

“The mentors lend encouragement,” Foster said. “They are cheerleaders.”

Myers remembered getting started in the program, which she learned about from someone whom she befriended while incarcerated.

“I had nothing going and I needed a jump start,” Myers said.

And it was more than needing to learn skills.

She recalled having a “spiritual void.”

After finishing the program, she got a degree from Troy University in social work, then a master’s degree in the same field online from New England College. She now works for Serenity Hospice.

“I had to find out who I was,” said Myers, who serves on the advisory board. “I had lost my way. Everything I have now I credit to the Christian Women’s Job Corps.”

McDurmond got her GED after studying in the program and now takes classes at Miller-Motte College.

“She was very shy when she got here,” Foster said of McDurmond, who found about the program while visiting MercyMed in the same building.

“I really didn’t talk to anyone but they got me to open up. I learned a lot and I gained confidence,” McDurmond said.

Patricia Stanford, 53, is enrolled in the class and getting ready to start. A server at the Columbus Convention & Trade Center, she has been in the program previously but dropped out as she struggled with a busy schedule.

“You get out of something what you put into it,” she said. “I realize that now. There is work to be done at home, as well as in class. I want to better myself and I am prepared to be more focused this time.”

Foster said the program includes women who don’t have a high school degree but some who have a college degree.

“We had a woman who had been laid off of a job she had for 18 years,” she said. “It had been a long time since she had searched for a job and needed help. We try to help women prepare for their best future so they don’t have to work a minimum wage job.”

Foster said spots are still available for the next class and folks can call 706-507-0253 for more information.

She added that a free medical career workshop for women sponsored by the Christian Women’s Job Corps will be held Tuesday at the Columbus Baptist Association from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and women do not have to be connected to the program to attend. Food will be served. For information, call 706-322-7757.

This story was originally published August 12, 2016 at 10:53 PM with the headline "A recovering drug addict lost her way until she joined Christian Women’s Job Corps."