Students and staff of the Christian Women’s Job Corps of the Highland Lakes celebrate winning the 2015 Locals Love Us favorite Burnet-area organization. The program provides job and career training for women. But students will tell you it goes beyond skill training as the staff provides great support and encouragement. Pictured are Anna Close (left), site director Alice Wooten, Billie Hanson, Terri Jabot and staff member (and program graduate) Diane Shaffer. Staff photo by Daniel Clifton

Students and staff of the Christian Women’s Job Corps of the Highland Lakes celebrate winning the 2015 Locals Love Us favorite Burnet-area organization. The program provides job and career training for women. But students will tell you it goes beyond skill training as the staff provides great support and encouragement. Pictured are Anna Close (left), site director Alice Wooten, Billie Hanson, Terri Jabot and staff member (and program graduate) Diane Shaffer. Staff photo by Daniel Clifton

BURNET — For more than a decade, the Christian Women’s Job Corps of the Highland Lakes has offered a beacon of hope for area women. The program provides career and job training programs but goes much deeper than typical job skills (though it offers a wealth of those as well.)
“They are so welcoming and understanding here,” said Anna Close, who is attending the CWJC’s program. “You feel loved and supported here. It’s wonderful.”
And that’s part of the program’s key to success, both of itself and for its graduates. 
A supportive and loving environment helps form the foundation of the program. For all the effort of the staff and supporters, The Picayune readers and KBEY 103.9 FM Radio Picayune listeners voted it as the 2015 Locals Love Us favorite Burnet-area organization.
“Oh, this is wonderful,” said CWJC site director Alice Wooten. “It’s really a testament to the great things the women who come through here are doing out in the community.”
In 2014, the CWJC held its first sessions. The initial program was 10 weeks but has since expanded to 12 weeks. The sessions are held twice a year and are tuition free. More than 100 women have graduated from the program.
The sessions offer women training in personal development, job readiness, GED preparation, relationship building, money management, boundary setting, computer training and a host of other things. 
And it’s all done through a supportive, Christian atmosphere.
“I think the way to describe it is it’s a hand up, not a hand out,” Terri Jabot said.
Local women in the business community help teach the class and mentor the students. 
“We couldn’t do it without the community’s support,” Wooten said. 
Go to cwjchl.org for more information.
daniel@thepicayune.com