A recent needs assessment of the southern Nevada community’s challenges in the coming years found employment as the number one area of concern to citizens. The analysis, when you get right down to it, is fairly easy: without a job, you can’t make your mortgage payment. Soon you can no longer afford the rent at the apartment where you moved when you lost the house. Food, as other necessities, becomes an issue. Joblessness may soon mean homelessness.
Without a paycheck, you can’t buy groceries; you can’t afford to eat in a restaurant. Unemployment may mean that you are soon forced to rely on SNAP (formerly called food stamps) and access a food bank. Without a job, you can’t afford gas or to fix your car when it breaks down. Eventually, even bus passes at $65 a month are out of your reach. Signing the kids up for soccer or violin lessons is out of the question. Medical insurance is something you just can’t begin to afford, much less new clothes.
In other words, being without a job doesn’t just mean unemployment. It soon encompasses such other primary needs as food, shelter, transportation, and almost every other issue facing citizens of a community. Unemployment is an aggressive downhill path to problems that invade every inch of your life and the life of your family.
With appreciation,
Janet Frasier Blumen
Founder and CEO