Unemployed
experience uncertainty, stress
By James Buchok
WINNIPEG — Unemployment is a time of uncertainty, stress and sometimes
despair. Since 1994, Winnipeg’s St. Benedict’s Retreat and
Conference Centre has responded to the needs of the unemployed by offering
a weekend retreat, free of charge, for the unemployed and their spouses.
The retreat is not a job-finding
exercise, but is described as “a
heart-helping weekend that deals with discouragement, rejection, fear and
anxiety, failure and stress. It is designed to help find patience, hope,
humour and self-esteem in God’s creative love.”
The retreat is funded by donations to St. Benedict’s Foundation, Inc.
“The self-esteem of the unemployed is really affected. They’re
asking 
who they are,” says Sister Virginia Evard, OSB, who is part
of the three-person team that leads the retreat. She said participants
are helped with psychological aspects of loss and strategies for finding
encouragement in their lives and learning from past experiences.
Evard is joined by Christine Strutt and Marie-Anne Propp. Strutt has a
background in religious education and Propp leads the group in meditations
as a tool to deal with stress.
“There is something that comes from the fact that the staff has been
through unemployment and have made the retreat before themselves,” says
Evard, adding it is also a spiritual retreat with time for prayer and
reflection.
This year’s retreat,
from the evening of Jan. 13 to the afternoon of Jan. 15, carried the
theme, Gift of Hope in a Time of Fear.
Evard explains that there are different circumstances that lead to unemployment,
not just closures or staff cutbacks. Health problems, in the case of the
unemployed person or perhaps a loved one, as well as injury are major factors
leading to unemployment.
Evard says that people also
simply need a rest. “They’re
away from the stigma of unemployment, the retreat is a safe place for
them. People say it gives them courage. It gives them a place away where
they are with people who are going through the same thing and it helps
them find hope in their lives. ”
The retreat began after Evard
and others attended a similar retreat at a spiritual conference centre
in Minneapolis in the early 90s. The recent retreat at St. Benedict’s attracted nine participants and past events
have hosted up to 35. Although it’s designed for the unemployed
and their spouses, some participants are accompanied by a friend or relative
for support.
Evard says the retreat attracts
a range of participants, from professionals to general labourers, “depending on what’s happening in society,” she
says.
According to Statistics Canada, following two months of declines, employment
in Canada rose slightly in December and the unemployment rate edged up
to 7.5 per cent.
Manitoba, with an unemployment rate of 5.4 per cent, and Saskatchewan at 5.2 are eighth and ninth, respectively, among the 10 provinces. Newfoundland and Labrador leads in unemployment at 12.8 per cent, with Alberta showing the lowest unemployment rate at 4.9 per cent.
 |
|