HISTORY OF JOBS PARTNERSHIP
The Jobs Partnership was founded on the Idea that relationships are key to changing and improving lives. It is fitting that the organization was founded through one such dynamic friendship. In 1996, white businessman Chris Mangum of CC. Mangum Inc., met African-American Reverend Donald McCoy of Pleasant Hill United Church of Christ while Mangum’s company was paving McCoys church parking lot. The two forged a friendship fueled by their religious faith and their mutual desire for racial reconciliation. They made a commitment to develop their own relationship by meeting weekly for lunch and prayer.

One day over lunch Mangum told McCoy of his pressing need for reliable employees, noting that many of his larger trucks were parked due to a lack of drivers. McCoy knew of capable men and women in his own congregation who were in need of work. The two saw an opportunity to help each other and their neighbors through a partnership of businesses and churches. They each promised to recruit 12 friends, business people, and pastors from their respective communities who would commit to a common mission of reaching out to, mentoring, training, and employing unemployed and underemployed residents of Raleigh, NC.

Together this group set out to create the first Jobs Partnership. They formed a Steering Committee with eight pastors of different races and denominations, and seven representative business leaders. And the rest is history, with classes conducted in many cities across the USA, and people taking the necessary steps in order for them to become not only more employable, but valued employees.

Joy Care Center’s Jobs Partnership program has, very successfully, provided re-entry services in McLean County since 2011.

Joy Care Center was founded in Bloomington in 1993, and became 501(c)(3) in 1995. The Joy Care Center brought the the Jobs Partnership program to Bloomington in 2010.

Jobs Partnership (Jobs For Life) was founded in North Carolina in the mid 1990’s, and has expanded to all 50 states, and state prisons in Illinois.

The similarity of mission and goals of Joy Care Center and Jobs Partnership blends the two together, and ensures quality service provision and administration. Joy Care Center provides the oversight advisory board, and Jobs Partnership provides the direct services…a perfect match.