Program helps laid-off hotel workers train to land new jobs

Mathis Winkler

Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2001 | 9:30 a.m.

Information For more information about the Foundation for an Independent Tomorrow, call 362-8544 or go to www.lasvegasfit.com

At first, Janet Blumen thought a nice outfit could get jobs for people on welfare.

But the lawyer and former chairwoman of the Colorado River Commission quickly figured out that clothes alone wouldn't do the trick.

"If you don't have an education, you can't get anything beyond minimum wage," Blumen said. "And if you have children, you can't live on minimum wage."

That revelation pushed Blumen to found the Foundation for an Independent Tomorrow, a privately funded nonprofit organization that assists people while they get training and helps them find better paying jobs to become self-sufficient.

"The goal has to be something that pays at least $9 an hour," Blumen said.

Agency officials work with those seeking help by first figuring out what kind of job will pay the bills. Clients need to do research on the profession and show that they're really interested in their chosen career. The foundation then helps with tuition fees and other expenses and accompanies people until they've found a job. To help someone through the process costs about $2,500, Blumen said.

True to Blumen's original concerns, most of the 165 clients the agency has helped since January 2000 have been welfare recipients. But after the Sept. 11 attacks, agency officials saw an increase in the number of laid-off hotel workers who have come in for help.

It's a new challenge for the organization, Blumen said. With hotels unlikely to recall all of their former employees, there's a need to help relatively unskilled workers get additional training, she said.

"If you've been a guest room attendant for (many) years, you can't do anything else," Blumen said.

Thyra Hope Murphy, 30, can attest to that. Since moving to Las Vegas from Southern California about four years ago, Murphy worked off and on as a receptionist in casinos.

"I don't really have the skills I need in life," Murphy said. "I got lucky with jobs. I didn't do things I liked to do."

Earlier this year, she lost a job at the Aladdin. A few months later, she landed another position at Paris, only to get a pink slip a few days after the attacks.

By that time, Murphy had already contacted the foundation to get help with training to become an aesthetician (one who gives facials, massages). Losing her job this last time served as a final wake-up call, she said.

"I would have just kept going and going," she said. "I totally believe it was just God stepping in and saying, 'Wake up. Do something. Get a profession. Do something with your life.' "

Mary Griffin, 44, went back on welfare to become an accountant and bookkeeper. She'd been working as a housekeeper at Imperial Palace and lost her job earlier this year.

"I didn't want to become a welfare mom again," she said. "But I was coming home so tired (after working.)"

Griffin recently started her training at Las Vegas College and said that she's still kind of nervous.

"It's going pretty good though, 'cause I'm good with numbers," she said.

Murphy has also begun her four-month training at Rollers Beauty School, where she's already done basic facials and waxing.

"It's hands-on, which I like," she said, sitting on one of the white massage tables that fill her classroom.

She has some connections at casino spas and hopes to get a job there once she finishes school.

And when that happens, she wants her name on a golden leaf on the "tree of independence." The poster hangs on a wall at the foundation's office and includes the names of all people who have graduated and found jobs.

"That's what we're all striving for -- to be independent," Murphy said.