Some people call them “soft skills,” the common-sense things someone was supposed to teach you somewhere along the way.

They’re the skills you need to get a job, keep a job. And having them — and that job — can mean the difference between having a home and being homeless.

The problem is some people never learned those skills.

That’s why Rosann Lewis and her team from Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin, with help from the University of Wisconsin-Extension, offers the Money Matters, Rent Matters and Food Matters workshop series each month at the Kenosha County Job Center, 8600 Sheridan Road.

Avoiding homelessness or recovering from a housing crisis isn’t just about having a job or finding a home. It’s about keeping the job, managing that rent money, taking care of yourself and communicating effectively with all the people who need bits of your energy and income.

Which, Lewis said, gets us back to those jobs we all need.

“If you’re not able to balance your home life, if you’re not able to balance your off time or your child care, you’re not going to keep a job very long,” she said.

Learning the ropes

Josie Vargas led the Rent Matters workshop in early November.

You need to comparison shop for housing, just as you would compare prices at the grocery store, Vargas explained to the nine women gathered around three conference tables in front of her.

“You can’t just go with what’s cheapest,” she said. “You have to go with what’s beneficial for you.”

Guided by a 10-page workbook, Vargas helped the women — some in new apartments, others still living in emergency shelters — consider everything from picking an apartment near a bus line and tenant/landlord rights to completing a housing checklist and taking pictures with a disposable camera before moving in.

That simple step could mean the difference between seeing your security deposit again and losing it, Vargas said.

The workshops might seem like common sense, but since the recession hit in 2008, demand for those services and others has climbed.

In 2008, 640 people came to Goodwill workshops. Through October, 688 people had come to the workshops this year. And the numbers suggest many of them visited twice, because there were 1,154 workshop visits, compared to 914 the same time last year.

Many visitors have been laid off. Some were 20-year employees at a company that finally folded or down-sized. Others were just breaking into the job market.

Quite a few have been without work longer than social services workers are used to seeing; what was once a four-month wait for work is now stretching to six, even eight months, Lewis said.

Finding services

If you’re homeless, or facing that possibility, Lewis and her staff of about 60 can connect you to all the other services at the Job Center.

“When you think of what 15 agencies and five county divisions can bring to the table, it is truly phenomenal,” Lewis said. “A lot of people are unaware what is available to them.

“If you are homeless, you can come in here and not only do you have all of these workshops, employment support services and case management, but also you have supportive services like Foodshare and medical,” Lewis said.

If things are bad, but not so bad that you might lose your home, Lewis said Goodwill and the other Job Center agencies can still help.

From job searching to resume writing, Lewis and the 11 people in her Personal Career Development unit can help everyone from entry-level to white-collar workers and all skill levels in between.

They host Job Search Huddles twice each day — 8:30 to 10:30 a.m., and 1 to 3 p.m. They offer resume-writing classes on Thursdays and Fridays. The computer lab is open for individual work.

And, of course, there are the Life Skills workshops. They’re free, and anyone — schooled in life’s little lessons or not — can attend.