By Marilyn Meyer
FLORIDA TODAY Weeklies

Pastor Errol Beckford, standing, looks on while Edwin Amezquita and Molly Barrett consult a Web site while searching for the jobs at one of the new Job Link Mini One Stop Career Centers set up in local churches. Photo by Marilyn Meyer, FLORIDA TODAY

Molly Barrett wants a job in sales; Edwin Amezquita wants a better-paying job in construction.

To help in their searches, they visit their Cocoa church, Celebration Tabernacle, where a Brevard Job Link Mini One-Stop Career Center has been operating for the past month. It is one of 20 mini one-stop career centers set up at churches and grassroots organizations throughout the county as a means to aid unemployed and underemployed people.

With the help of program coordinator Holly Paschal, Barrett and Amezquita log onto the Brevard Job Link Web site and search for job openings. They can use the center's new computer to type resumes, e-mail the resumes or print them and fax them out.

Barrett said she had been looking on her own for the past month, after moving to Brevard from Pennsylvania, and this was her first visit to a state Job Link site. She is animated when she finds a listing for a good-paying job in furniture sales.

"I've done furniture and antique sales. I owned my own furniture business in Pennsylvania. It was a cottage industry," Barrett said.

Amezquita, who lives in Palm Bay and has been maintaining Celebration Tabernacle's grounds, said he wants a job in painting or carpentry.

Each of the 20 mini one-stop job centers is open to the public.

In Central Brevard, mini job centers have opened, or soon will open, at the following locations:

Gloria Dei Episcopal Church, 3735 N. Indian River Ave., Cocoa.

ComeUNITY, 803 N. Fiske Blvd., Cocoa.

Mount Moriah African Methodist Episcopal Church, 304 Magnolia St., Cocoa.

Brevard Humanity Center of People's Church International, 1138 Peachtree St., Cooca.

True Pentecostal Assemblies Worldwide, Inc., which is an umbrella of Greater Blessed Assurance Apostolic Temple, 1009 S. Fiske Blvd., Rockledge.

Merritt Island Wesleyan Church, 210 N. Tropical Trail, Merritt Island.

Sharpes Church of God, 4115 Devoe Ave., Sharpes.

Cocoa Care International, an arm of Celebration Tabernacle Church, 1150 W. King St., Cocoa.

Funding comes through a $500,000 grant that United Way of Brevard received from the U.S. Department of Labor under a Bush administration program known as faith-based initiatives.

Under the program, each of the mini one-stop career centers received a computer with internet service, a printer, office furnishings, a resource library and a $1,200 monthly allocation to provide services, said Rita Elkins, United Way program manager.

"All these churches have congregations, so this includes people not just down and out but also those who are upwardly mobile," Elkins said.

Paschal, who runs the job program at Celebration Tabernacle, said, "Every day since we opened, we've had two or three people. We help them with resumes, we offer transportation to and from job interviews, and with clothing to wear."

Errol Beckford, the pastor of Celebration Tabernacle, said "This is not just finding jobs, but helping them find a career that best suits that person. That empowers them.

"Many of the young people do not have a clue what they want. We are able to talk to them and find out what their skills and weaknesses are. If a person does not have a high school diploma, we have the resources to hook them into someone who will help them get their GED," said Beckford.

While the 20 different ministries all provide the same services, they focus on a variety of things to help the job seekers.

At Freedom Outpost Ministries in Grant, which provides transitional housing for men and women, the program helps job seekers with transportation, clothing, babysitting and whatever services they may need to become self-sustaining, including a 12-stop alcohol and drug-abuse program.

Donald Respess, who runs the North Brevard Charities Sharing Center's mini job center program in Titusville, said he concentrates on helping people who are frequently in and out of the job market to "get focused and look at what is affecting their employment."

In July, the Department of Labor announced it had selected United Way of Brevard to act as an intermediary in subcontracting grant money to the faith-based and grassroots organizations.

A total of $17.5 million was awarded to 12 states and 29 organizations around the nation, said Suzanne Sparling, vice president of communications of United Way.

United Way of Brevard was the only intermediary selected from Florida and one of only nine nonprofit intermediary organizations chosen from throughout the nation, she said.

For more information about the churches and organizations selected as sub-grantees, contact Sparling at 631-2740.