C. J. Brown III

Entrepreneur Develops Job Search Program from theEmployer’s Perspective While He was Homeles

If someone would say to you “this time next year, you will be broke and homeless,” you would probably laugh and tell them they were crazy. Well, prior to 1999 Mr. C. J. Brown III was a successful businessperson and financially solvent along with being a Philanthropist donating too many causes and never thought it would happen to him. He made the mistake of trusting the wrong people with his finances and as a result went from Riches to Rags and ended up broke and homeless.

He lived on the streets of Milwaukee for 36 months and learned the ways of survival on the streets. He was then referred to a Veterans Shelter where he spent a year. He attempted to find employment on his own but all he heard is that due to his experience he was highly over qualified for any positions open within companies he applied to in Wisconsin. He was told by his caseworker through the Veterans Organization to apply for food stamps, which he did. As a result, he was assigned a caseworker through the W-2 program. He then turned to the resources available through the State, County, City and Federal Governments. It did not take him long to find that the system was not working in helping people find employment. The programs and techniques are very outdated and do not bring the unemployed worker and employer together. As a result, he spent the next year researching the system.

He spoke with over 2,000 people that were using the same resources and they complained that their caseworkers did not do a thing to help them except pressure them to make applications for jobs each week, which he also was told to do by his caseworker because everyone had to turn in a form to show they were looking for jobs. All this did was to force everyone to apply for positions that they would never qualify for so they could continue to receive financial assistance from the government.

Being the inquisitive mind that he is, he then started to research the programs available along with interviewing hundreds of caseworkers (social workers) and job developers. In addition, he discovered that those entrusted to assist people in obtaining jobs had no idea how to go about it other than what they read in various books and manuals provided by their supervisors. He obtained a listing of these publications from the case workers and found that they were written five or more years ago and totally outdated and none were written by employers.

Next were the employers in Southeastern Wisconsin. In speaking with employers, they were not trusting of the system either. They would be sent workers by the system that didn’t last more than a few weeks or a few months and having been an employer for more than twenty five years he knew that turnover is costly and it's very difficult to recoup those losses. It came to a point with the employers that if someone mentioned they were unemployed and receiving benefits from the government, the employers were not interested in hiring them and considered them a liability.As a result of his research, he developed a program entitled “28 Days to Employment.” This was developed into a six-week intensive training program (2 hours per week classroom).

He then needed to test the program and was able to develop an agreement with a non-profit organization that assisted unemployed older workers. He entitled the program the “Boomer Project.” This project worked with adults 55 plus.

The program was highly successful in helping the most difficult cases gain employment. The oldest worker to gain employment through this project was 83 years young.

Over the last seven years, he has tested the program through various organizations and different social groups and again the results were extremely successful in assisting those that completed the program gain employment.

He is only able to work with 20 people every six weeks with the classroom program and he has had to turn people away. With the large number of unemployed that need help, he has been asked if he could develop a home study and monitored program, which is now in it’s fifth edition.

He was fortunate enough to find the funding outside Wisconsin to develop this program which is now available on CD with a complete workbook and monitor's manual to assist everyone in the proper way to find a career and not just a job and retain their position. In addition, he discovered that employers also needed a program to bring it all together so that the employers would trust the system. Mr. Brown developed PeoplePower, LLC that benefits employers and through the employers developed another program to place people in higher paying positions entitled the “Guaranteed Jobs Program.”

The home study and monitor program would benefit unemployed workers throughout the United States and reduce the welfare and unemployment rolls. The jobs are out there and employers are looking for people to fill those positions but nothing has brought the two together until now. Employers that Mr. Brown has worked with will hire people that have completed the “28 Days to Employment” program because it not only teaches them how to find the perfect employment match, but also how to retain the position and excel in their work. He found that the majority of us do not know how to find a job, develop a proper resume or interview properly and need to be taught this process to meet the needs of the employers. The “28 Days to Employment” Program teaches current effective methods to accomplish our goals in not just finding a job, but finding a career.

These programs are very cost effective in that it will save time for case workers and job developers and assist them in being more effective in working with their clients and in addition save millions of dollars a year in government funding. The program is updated yearly with the monitor's manuals being updated quarterly due to information sent to Mr. Brown by Presidents and CEO's from around the country.