If you follow us on Facebook, you have heard us speak about giving back to help others. A Hand Up For Women is a group that also GIVES. Here is a little bit about this organization, to help you understand why they are so important to Zazzy Bandz:
"Welcome to A Hand Up For Women! We are the Knox County, TN site of a national ministry called Christian Women’s Job Corps. Founded in 1996 by the Women’s Missionary Union, CWJC started with two pilot sites and has now grown to include over 150 sites nationwide, including some that are Christian Men’s Job Corps sites. The Acton Institute has named A Hand Up For Women of the most effective faith-based nonprofits in the country for three years in a row.
The graduates who have been through our program report that our series of Life Management, Spiritual Development, and Job Readiness classes help them to become more personally strong and self-sufficient in every area of their lives. The relationships that they form with their Mentors provide them with a supportive friendship that is also a source of encouragement, consistency, and accountability. Our instructors and volunteers model the kind of unconditional love and acceptance to the women that are also extended by the God who formed them in His image, and who craves an intimate relationship with them. We strive to keep our classes small so that we can make a personal investment in each of our participants.
Some of the life changes that we have witnessed in our women include ending dependency on public assistance in favor of satisfying employment, leaving unhealthy relationships and making wiser life choices, obtaining and maintaining sobriety from addiction, being reunited with their children and families, and becoming valued members of the church and public community. If you get the answering machine of one of our graduates, she puts it like this. “I have made some big changes in my life recently. If I don’t call you back, it’s because you’re one of them!”
I hope that you will check back with our website regularly so that you too can share in the excitement of watching women move from dependency to self-sufficiency within their culture!"
Eva Pierce, Executive Director