Meet Your Neighbor: Faith-based job service finds a new home

CLYDE - When Dan Phillip was a young boy, his father worked hard and yet still
struggled to make ends meet. His parents, he learned later, sometimes ate tomato
sandwiches so their children could have a more substantial dinner. His parents’ sacrifices
shielded him from the knowledge of their financial struggles. Nevertheless, those early
experiences are likely what gave him a heart for the poor.
Phillip, of Ashland, is the president and founder of Transformation Network, a nonprofit
workforce development company that connects people who need jobs with
manufacturing companies that need employees. But Transformation Network is more
than just a staffing service. It is a faith-based company that redirects its profits back into
the people it serves, and, through leadership and personal effectiveness training, focuses
strongly on employee retention.

Transformation Network has its roots in a ministry to single moms. Long before Phillip
started Transformation Network, he said God used his compassion to lead him to create
a ministry for moms who needed help climbing out of poverty.
Phillip said God blessed him abundantly in adulthood, and out of that abundance he
wanted to give of his time, his skills, and his resources.
Transformation Network opened a Clyde location in January. (Photo: Sheri Trusty/Correspondent)
“For some reason or another, God has put on my heart people who are living in poverty,”
he said. “I have always felt God’s hand on my life. I feel like I’ve lived a blessed life, and
there’s that verse in the Bible that says that to he who has much, much will be required.
And the Bible talks about the parable of the talents. I don’t know how many talents I
have, but I have more than one, and I want to use them to serve God.”
Through Phillip’s ministry to single moms, female mentors taught young mothers practical
skills like childcare, grocery shopping and cooking.
“They learned basic life skills, and we built relationships with them so they learned to
trust somebody,” he said.
From there, Phillip began applying those same life-training techniques to men and
women incarcerated in the Ashland County Jail, where he has been ministering for 18
years. From that ministry came requests for help outside the jail, from men and women
struggling with poverty, addiction, unemployment and homelessness.
“I wasn’t prepared for that, but I started working with that population,” he said.
As he struggled to find employment for some of the people he was helping, a business
owner approached him with an offer: He would hire ex-offenders if Phillip would assume
all the risk by creating a temp to hire service. From that, Transformation Network was
born.
“That’s really how we got into this,” he said. “I had never thought of that, but it became a
way for us to help people. We grew from there with other companies.”
Today, Transformation Network offers staffing solutions in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. It
has office locations in Ashland; Mansfield; Clarksville, Indiana, and, as of January, in
Clyde, where it works with businesses in Clyde, Fremont, Bellevue, and Tiffin.
One of the benefits for employers is Transformation Network’s strong history of
increasing employee retention rates. A Norwalk company that sought help from
Transformation Network with its struggle in high employee turnover rates saw that rate
drop by half in just a one year. Transformation Network advises companies on employee
retention issues and offers training workshops on work and life skills for employees.
“A lot of companies think you can’t do anything about (turnover rates), but you can,”
Phillip said. “They are busy trying to focus on getting people instead of keeping who they
have. That is very expensive.”
Transformation Network offers a variety of programs to its employees, including “Liberty’s
Door” for people with a poor work history due to life issues or past felonies, and
“Opportunity Knocks” which provides mini-loans and grants to help with transportation or
housing needs.
The “Car for Work” program helps employees obtain cars with affordable loans, and the
“Seeds for the Sower” uses Transformation Network profits to aid a variety of ministries
around the world.
Transformation Network is looking for more manufacturing businesses to partner with,
and it offers employment services for “anybody who is looking for work.” It's new Clyde
office is at 103 E. McPherson Highway. For more information, call 419-207-1188 or
visit transformationnetwork.org.