 Well, good morning, everyone. My name is Melissa Hirsch. I'm the Director of Workforce Development and Transitional Employment at St. Anthony Foundation. And we're delighted to be here to share some information about our transitional employment and workforce development program. I'm joined by my colleague Joe Klosik, who is an employment specialist at St. Anthony's, and Joe and I will be doing this presentation together. So just to give you a little bit of information about our transitional employment program. We've been hiring guests that use St. Anthony services for many years, and what we've decided to do in the last six months is to create a little bit more structure around employment opportunities, and to welcome individuals into this transitional employment program, which is six to eight months, sometimes a little bit longer. Our transitional jobs are temporary jobs and the purpose is to prepare people to re-enter the workforce and to also earn a livable wage, while also receiving ongoing training. And that is paid training. So we provide job readiness training for individuals who are seeking employment. We help them with job search and job placement and also job retention. And as I said, we also provide on the job paid training. How does it work? So the first step in getting involved with our transitional employment program is to fill out a transitional employment interest form on our website. And we'll give you that web address later on in the presentation. It's a very simple form. It takes about five minutes to fill out and then you press the submit button and that goes right into our inbox. Once we receive your interest form, we will call you and have a brief phone interview. And depending on your skills and your experience, we might refer you into pre-employment training. Or if you're ready to apply for a job at St. Anthony's, we will invite you to do that and we have transitional jobs on our job board. Once you're hired as a transitional employee, you will receive ongoing paid training as I mentioned before. And over the course of the transitional employment experience, you'll be preparing for a long term full time position either at St. Anthony's or be placed with one of our external partners. We would provide opportunities for interviews with folks in the community. So here's a list of some of the jobs that are available through our transitional employment program. We are always hiring kitchen assistants to work in our dining room, our dining room on at 121 Golden Gate Avenue. We serve about 1600 meals a day. And we need a lot of assistance in the kitchen doing various tasks. We also have a community safety services department, which are folks that help work on the 100 block at Golden Gate Avenue and work with our guests and keep the block safe and support people provide referrals to different services that we offer at St. Anthony's. We also have a one year rehab recovery center called Father Alfred Center. It's at 291 10th Street. And we also hire kitchen assistants there as well as service associates. We have a hygiene hub where we offer free showers and laundry services. We hire service associates there. There's also transitional employment there as well as guest services in our dining area and other parts of the organization and we also have a free clothing program and we hire folks there as well. So that's an example of some of the jobs that we offer at St. Anthony's. We offer a job readiness curriculum and Joe's going to give you a little bit more information about this in a minute. It's a total of 45 hours. It's a three week program that happens in the afternoons. Each month we offer this. We cover emotional intelligence and interpersonal communication. These are all skills that are necessary to get a job and keep a job. We also provide financial and digital literacy job readiness and what it means to be professional on the job. We also help people with resume and cover letter writing which I know also is done at the library and we do that as well. We help people get familiar with how to search online for jobs and we also offer mock interview opportunities so that you can prepare for an interview when you have that opportunity and feel comfortable in that setting. So this is just a list of some of our ongoing training once you are hired as a transitional employee and some of it is going to be job specific. If you're working in a kitchen, we might offer kitchen safety or customer service, more computer work, financial literacy, depending on the industry that you're placed in there might be additional training. If we're doing it within St. Anthony's they'll be training, but if we place you outside there might be other training that you're able to access. And then doing a deeper dive on the pre-employment training that I mentioned earlier around managing conflict or working in a team and what does it mean to work in a diverse and equitable and inclusive environment and how to support that environment. So those are some highlights of the transitional employment program. And we'll answer some questions that you might have later on in the presentation. Right now I'm going to hand this off to Joe and he's going to share some additional information and then we'll take some questions. Joe. Thanks Melissa appreciate that. Good morning everyone. Happy July 5. So let's just go through this a little bit together and I, if you have a question that occurs to you, please feel free to type it in the chat box, and I'll try to address those as they come up and as Melissa said, we've got plenty of time at the end of the presentation to ask more general questions. So what are the top qualities that employees are looking for when they hire. Some of these might seem obvious to you. Some of these might just be a refresher. Some of these might be new to you, obviously show up on time, right take appropriate breaks. We put that number one because it is surprising how many times people forget this. Number two, perform with accuracy and efficiency. It may seem obvious, but just listening to our hiring managers and listening to our employees. It's oftentimes amazing what we assume is professional behavior. People just don't know. Number three, comfortable asking questions. Uh oh. Oh, sorry, that was me. That's okay. So, you know, this is an interesting one to me because I can tell you personally, as a younger man working in kitchens a lot, I would oftentimes tell my manager, yes, I can do that, because I wanted to be able to do it, the manager would walk away. I would ask questions and now I had to go track them down. So, it's okay to ask clarifying questions as long as you're concise, as long as they're professional, as long as they pertain to the task at hand, those are going to be encouraged. Ability to take initiative. We've all heard this idea. Are you a self starter. If you're completing one task, and you know that there's another task that has to be started, go ahead and start it. Managers really, really love to see that happen. Have a positive attitude. We're going to talk a little bit more about the second part of this emotional regulation, but attitude is everything. I think we all know that we forget it. Sometimes you don't have a great night's sleep. Some nights you're still replaying an argument with a family member or a loved one in your head. It's important to realize, hey, when you're at work, sometimes you have to put that aside and show up with a great attitude. Hence the term emotional regulation. You still can experience those thoughts and those feelings, but you might have to regulate them at times. Have a professional appearance. You know, San Francisco is an amazingly diverse place. We are not telling anyone don't be who you are. Everybody should feel free to express themselves. But obviously, there are some hygienic things that we have to be on the lookout for. And we also, you know, we want to make sure that if you're going to be customer facing, you have a professional and pleasant demeanor. And then number seven, possess good communication skills. This is huge. And I will say that when we talk about communication, this isn't just talking, this is listening, reflective listening, active listening. These are incredible skills to have. If you've ever been on the phone with a bad customer representative, then you understand how important good communication can be. Someone that allows you the time to ask your question, asks clarifying questions, identifies with your frustration, and then lets you know what they're doing to help take care of the situation. They're incredible skills. And Melissa, I'll just ask you to click on the next slide. So part of what we're going to talk about if you take our class is the difference between soft skills and hard skills. Now, I'm going to start with hard skills because that's a little easier to explain. You have to use a tool, a piece of equipment or computer software on your job to complete a skill. That's a hard skill, or I'm sorry, yeah hard skill. Like, let's say I'm a janitor, and I have to buff the floors at night that buffing machine using it using it properly that's a hard skill. Now, things like communication, the ability to write the ability to problem solve and basically just deal with people. That is a soft skill. And let me tell you something. These days, an employer will prioritize soft skills over hard skills. We can teach someone how to use a computer we can teach someone how to use a piece of equipment. It is very hard to teach someone how to be a good communicator. If you've ever been at a restaurant or an auto parts shop or retail shopping, and you have to deal with a person who is bad in those soft skills, you know how frustrating and difficult it can be as a customer. Right, so we do spend some time really working on those skills. Melissa next slide please. So, let's talk a little bit more about emotional intelligence because, to me, this is our secret sauce. This is something that we spend some time talking about. And as you can see here on the screen, right, we break it down. We have the ability to understand and manage your emotions and communicate effectively with others. And here's what we know from all the data that's out there. Someone who is emotionally intelligent tends to be better at handling everyday stress fosters meaningful and trusting relationships and usually experiences more job satisfaction. Who doesn't want that right those are amazing benefits and here's the thing if you practice emotional intelligence. You get to keep that when you clock out at the end of your shift this isn't just good for work. This is good for your life. Next slide please. And click it there you go. So we're going to break down emotional intelligence into four different areas right. And again some of these might seem very obvious but it's a nice refresher. So the first one is noticing and understanding emotions in oneself. Now that might seem extremely obvious but I'll be honest with you. Sometimes I'm running around. I'm very busy. Maybe I've forgotten to eat. Maybe I'm again replaying an argument my head I have stress about returning emails I'm thinking about something that's going to happen later on in the week. I'm just not paying attention to my emotions and they sneak up on me or I have a hard time identifying at times what exactly I'm feeling so noticing and understanding emotions is huge. Click it again please. And the other side of that is noticing and understanding emotions in others. That's empathy right so we want you to understand what's going on in yourself because if you can do that chances are you've got a better chance at noticing and understanding emotions and others and again if you can do that. That is a huge soft skill. And please click again. The flip side to both of those is effectively regulating our emotions. And again, let's say I'm having a bad day or I'm tired or I'm frustrated. You know what if I'm dealing with a customer or client or a guest. I need to regulate that. I don't need to share my frustration with them. I just need to be there and help them out as best I can. And then after I'm done with them maybe I take a few moments, just to step outside get some fresh air, reframe my day and regulate those emotions. And that is also a really cool idea you can use your emotions to facilitate performance. Maybe I'm really excited about a specific thing that's happening in my day. But you know what I can use that excitement to facilitate what I have to get done in other parts of my day. And go ahead and click Melissa. Click again. When we talk about these things in transitional employment. These are some of the vital soft skills that we're talking about communication active listening, empathy self regulation, reading the room, asking clarifying questions, engaging with your personal values, finding meaning in each task and integrity. I want to talk very, very briefly about this idea of engaging with your personal values, something that we have found that supported by a lot of psychological data is if you can bring your values to a job, you're going to get more out of that job. And I can also tell you just from personal experience and working with the clients that we've worked with people that are using values on their job they get noticed, and they tend to get promotions a little bit faster. They tend to get raises a little bit faster and again when they clock out at the end of the day, they get to keep that sense of well being. Finding meaning in each task. Listen, you're not going to love everything that you do on a job. That is just part of life we understand that. But if you can find the reason for that the meaning in doing that specific task, knowing that it's not going to be your entire day, you're going to get it done in a really good fashion. And again integrity, my favorite definition of integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching. At work, they're going to notice that they're going to notice that wow this person gets these tasks done. They show up with a good attitude. They know how to communicate. And next slide please. So, what makes a work environment good and productive. Is anybody out there right now that's that's viewing our presentation you can put this in the chat box. Do you have any examples of a good or productive work environment. And while you're thinking about that you can also answer me what factors can make a work environment uncomfortable or unsatisfying. Why do you think EQ, which is emotional intelligence is important at work, and how does EQ emotional intelligence benefited team. And if you don't have anything to ask that is okay. We can always back up and remember we've got time at the end to take some questions and we're doing great on time so I'm just going to give you more seconds and then. Respect the workplace thank you Lori absolutely respect the workplace I think that speaks to integrity it also speaks to bringing your values to work. I want to be respected so I'm going to respect my team members and where I work. A sense of belonging thank you Melissa yeah you know a sense of belonging is is huge we tend to maybe think of that as something you feel around family, something you feel around people that are in the same artistic community. But I got to tell you, I have a sense of belonging when I go to my job every day. Helpful people willing to help get the work done absolutely absolutely. Okay, so let's move on to the next section then. And I appreciate those questions in the chat there. So, two really really important ideas here on this, this slide fixed mindset versus a growth mindset. And I cannot tell you how many times I have seen this play out in jobs. And to be honest with you, as a younger man, I could see myself in a fixed mindset. I try to use a growth mindset so what are those really mean a fixed mindset is someone who just isn't interested in receiving new information thinks that what they do is good enough. They tend to give up kind of easy and they take feedback and criticism, very personally growth mindset, however, you learn from feedback failures can be an opportunity to learn. You can be inspired by other people's success. So I would ask yourself, you know, are you going into a new job or even just creating that new resume with a growth mindset. Can you adapt to different conditions, are you skeptical or are you curious when you encounter new situations or information. This is always going to happen and I'll be honest with you guys you know we, we had some issues to this morning just getting our, our slides up due to some computer issues but you know, everybody employed a growth mindset. We figured out how to get it done. We asked the right questions. We regulated our emotions and you know what it all came together because we have a good workplace we trust each other and we know that everyone is using a growth mindset. Now in the past, and a problem might have come up and I might have just gone. Well that's it it's not going to work. We're done. That's a fixed mindset. Fixed mindset is not a great mindset to have on the job or in life frankly. And next slide please. So, I really, really love this idea to because this comes directly from the idea of a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. Do you react or do you respond. What are the difference it can be subtle. But the more you learn about it the more you realize how important it is a reaction happens without thought a response is a conscious action. And I think they don't even further. A lot of times a reaction can be defensive or combative and sometimes perceived as too aggressive. It fuels disagreement, and it undermines you and or others right. And I would say that a reaction oftentimes is characterized as being emotional. You know we flash to anger we flash to judgment we flash to frustration, whereas a response is a pause before speaking. It's a message that is well thought out. It's articulated and it's calm. It helps resolve an issue, and it empowers you and empowers your team members. Next slide please. Another way to think of this is are you a thermostat or a thermometer. A thermostat you can set a thermostat you can set it's not going to go over a certain temperature, right where a thermometer is just going to let you know what the temperature is, there's no way of stopping it. And I would say people that are employing a growth mindset are a thermostat, they can regulate their emotions they know when to pause, take a breath, and then respond. That's it and professional comment. Next slide please. How do you do that. That's always the big question like well, I, you know, I don't want to react. I do want to respond. Is there a tip that you can give us for that. Yeah, I'll give you a very, very simple technique right now. And it's called the stop techniques stop spelled with two P's stop, take a breath, observe plan proceed. Next slide please. Break it down even more right. So stop just pause for a moment. And when I say a moment look, it can be two seconds, five seconds. It can just be that just to take a breath. Observe, or I'm sorry. I got to remember how to spell stop. Take a breath right notice your breathing. This is this is a very, very quick, almost meditative experience where you're just checking in with yourself just notice that breath in and out for just a moment. And then observe what thoughts are going through your mind. Where is your focus of attention. What are you reacting to, and what sensations do you notice in your body. I want to talk very briefly about that. I learned a few years ago that when I get very angry. Maybe some of you can identify with this, the tips of my fingers start to tingle and vibrate. Some people say similar things. Some people will say that when they get angry they can feel their face flush. Some people have a cold or numb sensation in their chest. Whatever it is for you, learning that that is a physical sensation that happens before anger before frustration can be very important because I know that when I start to feel that sensation in my fingers. I need to take a breath and if I can, I need to excuse myself for a moment compose myself in a professional way, and then come back in. And then finally pull back. Put in some perspective what is the big picture. What advice would I give a friend of a friend was going through this. Is this thought a fact, or an opinion. Let me talk a little bit about that because I think this is a really interesting concept we forget sometimes. A lot of times, when I am responding to an emotion, I'm responding to an opinion. What I want to do is I want to respond to a fact, and I want to stick to the facts. So, maybe somebody is saying something in a certain tone of voice or I think they're looking at me in a certain way but honestly, I don't really know. I need to respond with facts and then finally, this last one I think is vitally important practice what works. Hey, figure out what works for you. Alright, what is the best thing to do right now. What can I do that fits with my values do what will be effective and appropriate. So, if you process specific policies on how to handle specific situations and again, if you bring your values to your job, you're probably going to succeed at handling these different, these difficult situations, a lot more effectively than co workers who are not practicing these ideas. Next slide please. Hopefully, you got a little bit of an idea of what we do in transitional employment and hopefully my portion gave you some of the teaching curriculum or the curriculum that will be teaching. And I want to just provide you with next steps. If you do want to sign up, we can leave this this screen up for now. So go to st Anthony SF.org, you can click on services and then transitional employment and fill out that interest form and we'll get back to you soon. Okay, you can also call the hotline 415-592-2869, or you can email us. TE that's capital TE at st Anthony SF.org. And I see that it is also showing up in the chat screen. But what we'd like to do now, because we have plenty of time is to open this up to questions, I believe Lori is going to unmute you and we'll see you pop up on the screen. I can address the questions to Melissa, or myself, or just a general question, but we are happy to answer your questions. You can also type questions in the chat box if that is more comfortable for you. We're happy to take questions that way. So maybe what I'll do what people are thinking about their questions is just add a teeny bit more information. So some of you might work at other nonprofit organizations in San Francisco, and if you are interested in referring one of your clients to this program, feel free to do that we really welcome that. Ideally, the folks that we're looking to engage with in this program are folks that are re entering the workforce after perhaps they had some kind of justice involvement and now they've served their time and they want to get back into the workforce. So maybe they're a single household mother of children who are now in school and they're ready to go back to work and they just need to kind of find a way to get back into the workforce that way might need a little bit of training. We also have lots of folks that take advantage of our services at St. Anthony's come into the dining room, and are ready to look for work, and we welcome any of our guests on the block or in the community that want to engage on on, you know, finding out what opportunities are in the community and at St. Anthony's and just need a little support. Once we get an interest form, we can decide whether which what what the next steps are for that individual but we welcome everybody. We do have some eligibility requirements around folks being clean and sober. We also need folks to be documented because we would eventually be hiring some of these individuals. And we also need folks to be 18 or older. That's really it. Other than that, we welcome anyone to apply for for these opportunities. Thank you, Melissa. And I can see that we did get some chats show up. We're just going to go through these and answer them in the order they came in. So, Manuel, you're asking, is there any job boards where we can search for jobs. Absolutely. You are welcome to go to the St. Anthony website. You can click on careers. And then if you scroll down a little bit, you can click on the job openings and you are free to apply to any of those jobs at any time. You know, you might not need this class. That's excellent. You also might only want a week of this class. That is something we're willing to work with too. I hope that answers your question if not Manuel, you know, type in the chat box or you can send us a message. And then go ahead. Melissa, I'm sorry, I just wanted to mention that on the job board are all the jobs at St. Anthony's and so if you see a job title and it has a capital TE next to it that's a transitional job. Correct. Those are the jobs that we're talking about, but some folks like Joe said might not need that. Easy transition, they might be ready to apply for one of our what we call our core positions, which are our full time long term positions, in which case you can apply for those as well. But if you're looking for a transitional job, you'll want to look for a job title that has the letters TE in it. And let the I hope I'm saying that right. I got your your message. And yeah, unfortunately, we cannot hire undocumented people at this time. I will say that if someone is suffering from addiction, St. Anthony's does have the men's rehab right now. Father Alfred's and they will take anyone no questions asked. I know that might not answer the question for you, but unfortunately at this time we can only take people who are documented. And yeah, we have no problem with reaching out via the chat, you know, please keep them coming. Man well got your message you are welcome I hope that answered the question. I see that Lori posted the St. Anthony's job boards. Um, and then not sure I understand the comment later. So maybe I can clear this up. So you have to be legal documented worker to apply for a job at St. Anthony's. If you are an immigrant, but you are perfectly okay to work here that is perfectly okay. You know, we are a very, very diverse and friendly group here. But yeah the one stipulation is you just have to have documentation. I hope that answered the question. And let's see. I think those are all the questions that came through on the chat. And if you've got any other questions, give you guys a few moments to think about them. We're happy to answer them, and you can also get ahold of us again that last slide is still there. So please fill out that interest form if you are all curious about our transitional employment program. You can email us again at te at st Anthony SF.org. We also have got that phone number highlighted there. Also on the form if you do go to the form. There's a place where it asks how did you hear about transitional employment and there's, I don't believe the library is one of the choices but there is an other category so click that and put in the library so that we know that you were heard through this presentation, or through a conversation you had with somebody at the business and technology center at the library, because that would be really helpful information for us to share. Laurie, I think we're we're done with our presentation. Does it make sense to wait another minute or two for other questions or should we wrap up. We can wrap up. Thank you. Thank you so much Melissa and Joe about that question for undocumented immigrant. I remember that a patron asked that question recently, and I'm actually trying to look for the answer, but if the person who asked that question don't mind email us, I'll put my email address again in the chat so you can email that question and then I will look for the answer for you. Thank you so much, Melissa and Joe, we really appreciate you taking the time to share with us about St Anthony's transitional employment program, as well as the qualities and job skills that employers are looking for. I want to thank everyone for joining the program. I hope you find the presentation informative and helpful to you. I will send out an evaluation survey together with the link to the recording and Joe and Melissa's slide tag. Please give us your feedback so we can continue to improve our program. Again, thank you, everyone.