In Milwaukee, an effort to link inner-city workers with jobs outside the city

On a gray, drizzly Wednesday morning, a line forms early at the back of Greater Praise Church of God in Christ, a windowless storefront church on Milwaukee’s northwest side. Soon it stretches out the door, and the hiss of tires on wet pavement drifts in among the pews, where the pastor is greeting his visitors.

“Good morning, sir! How are you?” he says. “What’s going on, girl?” A short, stocky man in his mid-40s with a thick neck and close-cropped hair, he shifts easily to pastoral sternness. “Fellas!” he exclaims. “Take your hat off in the sanctuary. Please!”

They have come here on a weekday morning seeking not salvation, but employment. And Pastor Jerome Smith Sr., who would resist such a strict distinction, is eager to help them. For two years he has run a program to connect inner-city workers, mostly African-American men, with jobs outside the city. Called the Joseph Project after the Old Testament figure, it not only helps them find work but also runs a van service to get them there, a trip that for some takes more than an hour.

The Joseph Project is a small effort to