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Real Talk: A Guide for Honest Conversations About Good-Paying Jobs
FEN-PAC is asking people across New Jersey to have simple, authentic conversations about good-paying jobs, community needs, and a Job Guarantee. Use this 4-step guide to start having “real talk” with people you know.
A Job Guarantee is a government program that would create living-wage jobs in areas like childcare, elder care, food access, infrastructure, environmental cleanup, and other essential community services.
But winning a Job Guarantee starts with real conversations about what people and communities actually need.
This 4-step guide is not a script you have to read word for word. The goal is to help you start an authentic conversation, listen first, and invite people into something hopeful and constructive.
Step 1: Ask About Job Ideas
Purpose:
Help someone share their own idea for a living-wage job that could meet a real need in their community.
Talking Script:
Under a Job Guarantee program, state and local governments would work with residents to better understand community needs — and residents would have a real say in what jobs get created.
Instead of relying only on corporations and wealthy investors to decide where jobs come from, a Job Guarantee would create a public pathway for everyday people to help identify needed work and turn community needs into real living-wage jobs.
These would not just be jobs that pay the bills. They would be jobs that give people stability, dignity, purpose, and room to grow.
If a Job Guarantee existed in your community, what is one living-wage job you would want to see created?
Conversation Tip:
Start by listening. Let the person answer in their own words before offering your own thoughts. Ask follow-up questions if you want to better understand their idea. After they’ve had a chance to share, you can offer your own thoughts or job ideas if it feels natural. The goal is not to debate or lecture.
Step 2: Ask What Skills Could Help Build Future Career Opportunities
Purpose:
Help people imagine themselves as part of the work to win a Job Guarantee and think about skills they may want to build that could potentially lead to future career opportunities.
Talking Script:
Winning a Job Guarantee will take more than good ideas. It will take people across New Jersey learning how to organize, communicate, listen, bring people together, and build support across political divides to influence elected officials to pass a Job Guarantee into law.
As FEN-PAC grows, we want to help people build real organizing skills and create pathways into paid political and community organizing work — including roles in community organizing, campaign operations, digital communications, research, data, training, and more.
If you had the chance to build skills and explore future opportunities in one of these areas, which would interest you most and why: community organizing, campaign operations, digital communications, research and data, or training others?
Conversation Tip:
This question is not about pressuring anyone to make a career decision. It is about helping people imagine themselves as part of building a better politics and a movement to win a Job Guarantee.
Listen first. Let them share what interests them. Then, if it feels natural, you can share why you believe organizing, communication, and leadership skills matter for building a better politics and winning a Job Guarantee.
Step 3: Invite Them to Join the Facebook Group
Talking Script:
I’d like to invite you to join FEN-PAC’s New Jersey for a Job Guarantee Facebook Group.
This is not your typical Facebook group.
It is a positive online community for people across New Jersey who believe working people deserve better jobs, more economic security, and real pathways to upward mobility.
The group is also a place to learn and practice a healthier kind of politics through real conversations about good-paying jobs, dignity, community needs, and a Job Guarantee.
Everyone who joins the group will have access to FEN-PAC’s Volunteer-to-Paid Organizer program, where participants can gain hands-on organizing experience, résumé support, career coaching, and political job-search resources.
Participants who complete the program and meet expectations will also receive a certificate of completion and a letter of recommendation.
If you are tired of politics rooted in anger, insults, and division — and want to help build a different kind of politics rooted in good-paying jobs, dignity for all, and working people looking out for one another — join the group here:
www.facebook.com/groups/goodjobsnj
To learn more about the group and why we’re building it, you can watch the short video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=N43NWzuMzUs
Step 4: Ask Them to Talk to Two People
After they join, ask them to reach out to two people they know and have the same conversation using this guide.
Talking Script:
We’re building this group into a visible community of people across New Jersey who believe working people deserve better jobs, more security, and real pathways to upward mobility.
A lot of working people are concerned about the lack of good-paying jobs in their communities. Many people are also tired of politics rooted in anger, insults, and division, and are looking for a different kind of politics that brings people together and solves real problems.
That’s why these conversations matter.
They give people a chance to feel heard, imagine something better, and take one small step toward building a healthier politics rooted in good-paying jobs, dignity, and working people looking out for one another.
After you join the Facebook Group, please reach out to two people you know and have this same conversation using this guide:
After each conversation, invite them to join the New Jersey for a Job Guarantee Facebook Group so they can be part of the community we’re building for good-paying jobs, dignity, and a Job Guarantee in New Jersey: