Contact:	David Owens	FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
	908/301-1899	January 28, 2011

 

The Power of CONTACT:
How a bicycle ride through France led to a new career opportunity

Westfield — “It was my CONTACT training in active listening that got me my new job,” says Allison, the excitement twinkling in her eyes. “CONTACT,” she asserts, “taught me how to listen to clients and to make them feel heard and respected.” Her ability to listen to people was a skill she had honed in the CONTACT We Care 12-week basic training class, and then through service on its crisis hotline. It was the only place where these communications skills had been imparted with such thoroughness.

Flash back to the summer of 2009: 28-year-old Allison Wise found herself biking through France with her father and contemplating a career change. She had recently given up a lucrative, yet unfulfilling job in finance and challenged herself to find a career that would make an impact. In her head and in her heart, Allison was fairly sure she was headed into the field of social work. In fact, before she left home, she had applied to the graduate social work program at Fordham University.

As luck would have it, Debra Clark, a listener at CONTACT We Care, was taking the same bike tour. Finding common ground in foreign terrain, Deb and Allison soon discovered they were both New Jersey residents and both interested in doing meaningful work. For Deb, that had always meant volunteering with CONTACT We Care — a crisis intervention and suicide prevention hotline based in Westfield. Deb suggested to Allison that signing on with CONTACT would give her both an opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives and at the same time complement any work she might do toward a degree in social work.

As soon as she got back from France, Allison called CONTACT We Care and signed up for the fall training class.

Fast forward to 2010: The social work career Allison sought was well in hand and she was on her way — that is, until things got even better. As part of her graduate program, Allison was doing an internship at a social service agency dedicated to providing services for the homeless. The agency was in transition. The director, Allison’s supervisor, was casting about for a Case Management Supervisor and interviewing licensed clinical social workers for the job. After several weeks of interviewing, the director called Allison into her office and questioned her extensively about the agency, its mission, the services it provided and its specific clients — clients she knew were increasingly relying on, relating to and requesting to work directly with Allison.

Within a week, the director had made her choice. More than any other candidate, Allison had demonstrated she had the right touch with the clients and the wherewithal to carry out the agency’s work. Allison won’t get the title until she gets her degree, but she’s already gotten the job.

So now, her coincidental meeting two years before on the bicycle trip had come around to Allison in an unusual and exciting way. Her volunteer work had actually landed her a job, a job that other seemingly more qualified people seemed not to have been up to.

CONTACT We Care begins its new training class on Wednesday March 2. Prospective volunteers ready to commit to a minimum of 100 hours service on the hotline pay a nominal $50 fee for training materials. But anyone interested in receiving training that may be used for their professional development — training that could aid in future employment — can pay a $300 tuition fee and receive a certificate at the end of the training in May.

There will be an orientation and screening session for the program on Wednesday February 16 at 7 p.m. in the lounge at the First Baptist Church of Westfield.

More information on the CONTACT training program and orientation is available by calling Training Director Susan Fasano at 908-301-1899; or by e-mail to sue.fasano@contactwecare.org.