Job workshop gives homeless a leg up

Joy Kodama never imagined she would be homeless. But after moving from Hilo two years ago to seek medical attention for her daughter, she said, the two of them became buried by medical debts and found themselves living on the street.

"I had a home and a business," Kodama said Saturday. "I’m a licensed massage therapist. It’s been difficult because, you know, when you live out on the streets you lose a lot of yourself. You have to learn to live without the things that you’ve been used to living with all your life and just make do with what is there for you."

Kodama, 60, and her 34-year-old daughter have been living in a homeless shelter since March. She participated in a job preparation workshop Saturday sponsored by the Hogan Entrepreneurial Program at Chaminade University to gain the skills she needs to re-enter the workforce.

"They’ve gone over everything from beginning to end on how to represent yourself at an interview, how to do your resume. … They’ve given (us) every tool that (we) need, right on down to bus passes," Kodama said. "I think that people get very confused when they don’t get a chance to come to a workshop like this and be able to be walked through the steps because it just becomes so overwhelming."

The Hogan Entrepreneurial Program has been sponsoring the workshop for the past eight years because it fits into its mission of "doing business things that make social sense (and) doing social things that make business sense," said Ann Lujan Kishi, associate director of the program.

This year, 20 homeless and 16 student volunteers participated. At the end of the workshop, participants go back to their shelters with a packet of information, including frequently asked interview questions and a long list of powerful key words and phrases to use in interviews. They also get donated clothes that are appropriate to wear to an interview.

Devan Rostorfer, a student volunteer, said she has been interested in helping the homeless since she moved here in 2009 to attend Chaminade.

"I wasn’t really ever exposed to homelessness, but I did grow up in a low-income family, and I know what it’s like to struggle," she said.

Rostorfer, a 21-year-old biology major, said she worked one-on-one with a young woman who has had difficulty finding employment after staying home to take care of her child.

"What I found is that everyone just seems like a normal person. They are pretty presentable and a lot of them have just hit road bumps or don’t know how to articulate where they’ve had struggles in their lives," Rostorfer said. "In a way they’re just like us, and it could happen to anybody."

The Hogan program is a one- or two-year certification program open to students of all majors who are interested in entrepreneurship and helping the community, Kishi said.

"Not all of our students are interested in starting their business," she said. "They take what they learn in here and they apply it to whatever degrees or majors they’re in, and you’d be surprised what they do with what they gain from the program."

James Galutira, a 26-year-old nursing student from Kona, worked closely with his participant during the mock interview portion of the workshop.

Galutira explained to 49-year-old Oliver Hanawahine the importance of making eye contact, having good posture, speaking clearly and being friendly.

He asked Hanawahine common interview questions"

» "How do you handle pressure?"

» "Have you ever had a disagreement with a boss?"

» "Why do you believe you’re qualified for this position?"

"That’s where you sell yourself," Galutira told Hanawahine after the mock interview. "In the last 30 seconds you can be like, ‘Oh, I want this job more than anything and I’m willing to go above the extra mile.’ Just be super positive. Sell yourself."

After the workshop, volunteers are responsible for typing up participants’ resumes so they can be printed on nice resume paper and sent to them at their shelter. Only people in shelters participate in the program.

Kishi said she doesn’t know how many people end up getting jobs because it’s impractical to track them after the workshops.

"It’s hard because different people define success differently," she said. "Just from our experience here and the feedback we get soon after the workshop, it’s a success. But if you want numbers, you know, if that’s how you would define success, I can’t give you that."