Page 12 - Flathead Beacon // 1.13.16

NEWS
New Year, New Me
Sunburst Mental Health Services event aimed to help community members nd and maintain employment
BY CLARE MENZEL OF THE BEACON
Job-hunting can be stressful, but organizers of a job-training seminar hosted at The Village at Sunburst Men- tal Health on Jan. 8 and 9 hope that the event equipped the 15 attendees with the skills and savvy to make the process less intimidating and more successful.
The two-day event, called “New Year, New Me,” kicked o on Friday with a resume, application, and interview work- shop, then continued on Saturday with a free makeover provided by volunteers from the Pela Beauty Academy and Soucie Soucie Salon. The Garden of Eden Thrift & Variety Store and Flathead Industries also donated racks of professional attire.
“The population that we serve here at Sunburst, they’ve been told their entire diagnosed life that you have this [diag- nosis], and they almost look at it as a dis- ability,” said Josh Starcher, village ser- vice coordinator. “It’s not a hindrance, it doesn’t de ne you. You can still do what- ever every other citizen does, you can get a job and employment.”
The workshop, led by Flathead Job Service workforce consultant Robbin Gard, focused on resume building and the interview, which Starcher acknowl- edged can be a “big nervous point.” Flat- head Job Service, a Montana Department of Labor & Industry center, matches job seekers with employers and provides free services including practice interviews.
Gard covered many topics during the two-hour class, including when to intro- duce a service dog to an interviewer and how to deal with potential hard-to-ex- plain points in a job history, like frequent job-hopping or stretches of time when the attendee was not formally employed and
Ken Gary, bottom, and Jason Tuller revise resumes during a job training seminar at The Village at Sunburst Mental Health Services in Kalispell. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
dealing with a disability or depression. The attendees also o ered each other advice, such as explaining that people who have trouble with spelling or grammar might nd it helpful to pick up two copies of an application.
“I’m job hunting, but I don’t have a resume,” said Amy Bailey, one attendee
who asked how to include on her resume time spent as a homemaker. “This was a lot of information.”
On the following day, six volunteers from the local beauty salons spent two hours styling hair, painting ngernails, and showing attendees how to apply makeup.
“When you have the ability to keep your hair trimmed or styled, you have way more con dence because you know you look better,” said Melissa Totzauer, owner of Pela Beauty Academy. “The ladies that we worked on were awesome, and hopefully they felt empowered.”
clare@ atheadbeacon.com
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JANUARY 13, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM